Hi Arashi no Rekidaishi: Firestorm Chronicles
by Zenheim Panda
Summary: Entirely on OCcentric: Naruto's generation is long gone, & new genin are at the wheel, including two girls from our world: a narutard and a lovable goofball. STRONG LANGUAGE, but not enough content to be rated M. Ch17 is here. UNDER REVISION.
1. Prologue

Author's Comment: Please note the numbers have been changed for the safety of me && my friend. :) Also, I'm sorry if by some freak chance one of these is your number. o_O In that case, comment and I'll totally change it. … But that would still be weird. o_o Anyway, after this is gets better. x3 Just a bit of ground work that needs to be done. Read on!

_Prologue_

11:48PM, Central Time. Text Message Conversation between 9137051137, 6059831541. Government monitoring program B1V400P.

9137051137: god i wish i cud cum n live w/ u

6059831541: Anna? What's wrong? Are you okay?

9137051137: ya, im ok i guess… parents fighting again

6059831541: Oh… I'm sorry… I really do miss you too. You should come up here and live with me.

9137051137: r *u* ok panda? u havent been online lately

6059831541: Yeah… I suppose. Just same deal with parents, added to the fact that I'll do almost anything to keep from going home… Just hate it there. And my mother keeps bringing up my friends. Sigh.

9137051137: im sry… sigh. life sux.

6059831541: Yeah… Talk about it. We should run away somewhere… I wish we could just be zapped away into the Naruto universe or something… Sigh.

9137051137: lol ya tht wud b fun… altho id b totally clueless. ud have 2 explain everything 2 me… but still, sounds fun

6059831541: Lol, yeah… You really do need to watch Naruto though! There's a reason I'm so obsessed with it!

9137051137: well ya… but i still need 2 find the time =/ … neway, i gotta go 2 bed… parents yelling

6059831541: Yeah, me too… Anyway, I'll talk to you tomorrow morning, kay?

9137051137: l8r! good nite


	2. Chapter One

Author's Comment: So yeah! Here's the first chapter. Lots of cursing, but really, I don't think it deserves to be rated M. ; Anyway... Yeah. R&R please! Or just comment. XD Either way, feedback appreciated. :3 The other character, Anna, is: Soldier in Slippers

Chapter One

"Ugh... I feel like shit," the girl said, rolling over as she attempted to recapture sleep by squeezing her eyes shut even more tightly. However, this plan was quickly foiled by the itchy surface on which she slept. She moaned again as she sat up, rubbing her eyes with one hand while the other remained behind her as a support. "What--?" This was not where she had fallen asleep. Internally, she started to panic as her eyes widened and she desperately looked around at the surrounding trees that made up what seemed to be a very dense forest. What had woken her was the fact that she was sleeping on pine needles which had begun to irritate her skin. Her panic soon turned to mortification as she realized she was also wearing the exact same thing that she had been in when she'd gone to bed- Only her underwear. Just when she was starting to think that things couldn't get any worse -by her standards, waking up in the woods wearing nothing but her underwear was pretty bad- she heard a sleepy groan from behind her. Drawing her knees to her chest in an attempt to conceal herself as much as possible, she scooted around to see who it was, wincing at how itchy the pine needles were on her legs; maybe it was the person who'd brought her here. As soon as the figure registered in her mind, her expression changed as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on her head.

"Anna! ANNA!!" She jumped onto all fours as she shook the blond girl's shoulders frantically, forgetting her modesty. Anna was rather short with wavy blond hair and lovely blue eyes beneath the thin, pale lids rimmed in long, curved eyelashes, highlighted perfectly by arching eyebrows that were usually in a cynical position like her mouth. Actually, when she slept, she looked quite beautiful. More than likely, that beauty carried over into her waking hours before it was canceled out by her self-proclaimed desire to rule the world.

Anna moaned and rolled over, stretching and rubbing her eyes before readjusting her clothing by pulling up a white laced spaghetti-strap tank top patterned with black hearts and resettling black cotton sophies on her hips. "Panda...?" she mumbled sleepily. "I'm hungry..." Anna groaned again, curling up into a smaller ball.

"ANNA! Shut _up_! Where the hell are we? Why are you here? What's going on?!" Panda half yelled, shaking the girl even more violently as a panic attack began to creep up on her.

"Ugh... Leave me alone. I'm hungry... Hey, where are we?" Anna said, sitting up for the first time and scratching her head.

"UGH!" Panda smacked the other girl on the back of the head, only half playfully. "You're just now noticing this?! You're not helping at all!! What's going on?!"

"Ow... What was that for? And I'm hungry... Wait, where's your hat?"

"You're just now noticing this too?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! We need to figure out where the hell we are and who brought us here!"

"Ugh. Can't we get some food first? Like bacon bits maybe?… Or a Vault... I'm sleepy..." After rubbing her eyes and scooting back a bit so that she could lean against a tree, she cocked her head again and looked at the brunette funnily. "And Panda, why aren't you wearing any clothes?"

"Fuck. Just KILL ME NOW will you, Captain Obvious? You dolt! Do you even realize the situation we're in?!" she shouted, on the verge of tears and hysterics.

"No. I just woke up... Do you have any-"

"NO, I DON'T HAVE ANY FOOD, BACON BITS OR OTHERWISE!! NOW WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LOOK AROUND?! We're in the middle of GOD-knows-where, which is NOT where we fell asleep, with no way to tell how we got here or who brought us! AND I'M IN MY GODDAMN UNDERWEAR!! I MIGHT HAVE BEEN RAPED WHILE I WAS ASLEEP!!!"

"You're not being very panda-like, you know. If you were _really_ a panda, you wouldn't be so friggin' violent... And you would be hungr-" Anna stopped herself, shaking her head as the other girl's look continued to become increasingly homicidal. "And anyway, no one would _rape _you. Chill out. And even if they did, there would be... blood or something! Now anyway, where are we? Last time I checked, I was in Welcome-to-no-where, Texas with a bunch of screaming kids. How did you get here too? You live halfway across the country from me anyway."

Panda's head drooped and she let out a long sigh- It had taken her companion this long to even raise _two _ of the questions she's been asking the entire time? With a sweatdrop almost visible and another sigh, she replied, "Well that's what I was asking. I don't know where we are, I don't know how we got here, and the only thing that I really _do_ know is that I went to bed with a stomach ache." She sighed again, sitting on her heels with her palms on her knees, hunched forward a little as she tried to draw comfort from her friend's presence; the situation would have been surely much worse if she were alone. There was an awkward moment as both of the absorbed the solemnity of the situation.

Anna broke the depressing silence with an ADD moment. "Hey, what's that?" she asked, scrambling to her feet as she pointed at something high up in a tree at the other end of the clearing. Panda looked up to see what the other girl had indicated, only to find the blond scrabbling for a grip on the limbless lower portion of the tough bark, gaining many scratches on her bare legs as she attempted to shimmy up the tree by hugging it and scooting upwards, reminding Panda of the boy in _The Jungle Book_. Shifting her gaze, she spotted the desired object; from so far away she couldn't tell what it was, only that it was most likely metal by the glint and seemed to have some sort of point protruding into the air. Much to her surprise, Anna's blond head poked into her field of vision.

"Ha!" Anna exclaimed triumphantly as she stuck her hand out to reach it before crying out as she tumbled down.

"Anna!" Panda gasped, jumping up as she dashed over to where her friend lay awkwardly on the ground, her arm twisted beneath her as she moaned and whimpered in pain. "Anna, Anna you idiot, are you okay? What's wrong? Are you hurt? Did you break anything?!" Panda's rising panic and flood of words returned as she crouched, terrified, over Anna's crumpled body.

"Shit, shit shit... My armmmm... Agh..." She moaned and tried to roll over, only crying out in pain again.

"Anna, Anna darling, we have to get you onto your back so you can breath. I'm gonna have to move you, so just hold your breath." Even as Anna started to protest, Panda had already slipped an arm under her and began counting. "One... Two... _Three!_" Anna cried out again, tears springing to her eyes as her crushed arm was freed and a new wave of pain washed over her, her chest exposed so that her lungs didn't have to endure quite so much labor. In addition, her other hand was revealed as it fell open at her side. Her palm and fingers, heavily bloodied, contained the metal form which she had seen up in the tree. The points of the shuriken were buried in her hand and a headache began to pound at Panda's temples. "Oh no, oh no, oh shit, oh shit... No way, not really..." Panda made an unconscious attempt to move away, only kept in place by Anna's urgent state. Looking back up at the tree, she saw many cut and slash marks, as there were on many of the other trees. "Oh shit... No way..." Slowly, the surroundings, taken in with more detail, began registering as more and more familiar. Without realizing it, she's begun to hyperventilate, and she attempted to calm herself and her breathing, trying to slow down the sudden influx of information and events that were going on, as well as this new epiphany. Looking around, there was no doubt about whether or not she was right about where she was, despite the fact that an invisible pressure on her temples was making the world spin and heave. Looking back to her friend who almost unconscious with the pain, her eyes began to tear up as well. "Oh Anna... This can't really be happening, right?"

The world around her blacked out.

"Shit."

Panda's eyes fluttered open at the sound of another voice, and for the second time, the leafy roof of the forest met her gaze, although this time it was dark and starry, and the temperature seemed to be below freezing as goosebumps rose on her arms. For a moment, she felt like crying again, but held herself together as she turned to Anna, hoping that the girl was in a better state.

"Hey," the blond croaked, her voice either hoarse from lack of use or crying so much earlier.

"You alright?" Panda asked, hugging her knees as she refrained from reaching out and touching the other girl to assure herself that she was real, and in fact still breathing.

"I'm okay. I can't feel a thing. My arm's totally numb, although this little bitch in my palm here is still throbbing." Gently so as not to wrench her other arm, she nodded towards the hand covered in dried blood where the shuriken still lay buried in her flesh.

Panda smiled slightly. "I'm glad it doesn't hurt. Do you want me to take the shuriken out?" As she said the last part, she winced slightly, although she wasn't sure herself whether or not it was because of the prospect of possibly hurting her friend more, or the fact that she'd just admitted to herself that this object was real.

"Yeah. I guess we really ought to." Anna grimaced.

"Okay," Panda said, biting her lip as she crawled over, laying a cold hand on the girl's wrist and squeezing slightly, trying to stem the blood flow so that it would hurt less. After a few moments, she suddenly jerked it out without any warning.

"Damn it!!" Anna gasped, almost sitting up with surprise.

Panda bit her lip. "If there was something that we could wrap it in, it would better but I don't really think that leaves would be very sanitary..." she muttered, worried about infection.

"Panda, what did you do to yourself while I was asleep anyway?" Anna said, wincing as she spoke in an attempt to take her mind off of all of the blood.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your face. It's all black and stuff... and for that matter, so's the rest of you."

Panda looked down to see what the girl said was true; it looked like she had been covered in ash. In fact, she felt a bit more sore than she had when she'd first woken up, but she attributed that to sleeping on the ground in the cold. "You're not looking like the picture of health yourself," she replied cynically with a smile. Come to think of it, Anna seemed to have the same ash-like substance all over her. "Hey... You've got it all over yourself too." Panda frowned, musing. The weight of the knowledge of where she was almost certain they were began to press down on her temples again, and she massaged them, trying to alleviate the gravity of the situation that she felt.

"I knew you were clumsy, but not _that_ clumsy!" Anna's jest brought a bit of a laugh out of her as Panda sat up straighter and hugged her knees tighter.

"So you got a hair cut?" Panda asked, trying to make conversation. She should be trying to figure out where they were or something of the nature, but the more she thought about, the more she seemed to stress and become less competent. Maybe it would resolve itself, she though wistfully, knowing in the back of her mind that it was extremely unlikely.

"Huh? No... I haven't had one since like... January, before camp," Anna said, giving her a funny look.

"That can't be true. At camp your hair was like... this long." Panda indicated the length with her hand, a few inches below her shoulder.

"Maybe it's how I'm laying right now. It's grown a tiny bit longer than that." Anna continued to give Panda the same 'you're-insane' expression, or more accurately, 'you're-more-insane-than-even-I-thought-you-were' expression.

"No, darling, it really isn't," Panda said, shooting her a worried look before crawling around to her side and gingerly taking a handful of the other girl's blond hair, which looked a bit more white than she recalled. Stretching the strands as far as they would go, Panda tried to show Anna the tips of her hair, which were much shorter than either of them remembered.

"Waiiiit... Is the rest of it that short?" Anna's brow wrinkled as her eyebrows came together, her expression concerned.

"Yeah," Panda said, nodding as she tried to repress an 'I-told-you-so' look.

Anna flipped out, almost jumping up again . "OH SHIT!! THE PSYCHO WHO BROUGHT US HERE CUT MY HAIR!!"

Panda rolled her eyes with an exasperated air. "Why the hell would they do that?"

"Who the hell knows why crazy people do anything?!" Anna continued to spazz, jerking her head this way and that in the lea of not being able to full out flail around the clearing.

Panda began to laugh, as the irony hit her. "We're really ones to be talking, you know."

Anna calmed down a bit, the joke bringing a crooked smile to her face."Who knows why _we_ do anything." She paused. "Unless it's yaoi. Then you don't need a reason."

"Anna, you IDIOT!" Panda raised her hand to smack her on the back of the head before she realized the back of her head was on the ground. She narrowed her eyes. "Shit. Well _pretend_ I smacked you on the back of the head, okay?!"

"But you _like_ me being an idiot!" Anna whined, giving Panda her puppy dog eyes and voice.

"Oh shut up." Panda crossed her arms and tried to stay mad, but Anna kept up the puppy look until Panda was forced to ruffle her hair. "You really suck, you know that?"

"And I'm very proud of it too." Anna grinned, a smug expression on her features.

Panda glared at her, very irritated at the fact that the blond was so lovable. "Dammit."

"Speaking of hair, did you dye yours?" Anna said, trying to avert further violence by changing the subject.

"Uh, noooo..." Panda gave Anna the look that she had previously received, the 'you're-more-insane-than-even-I-thought-you-were' one that seemed to be picking up momentum. Soon it'd have to be added to the dictionary, Panda though idly before she realized how ridiculous the thought was and almost smacked herself for it.

"Really? 'Cause that part's all... purpley," Anna said, wrestling with her vocabulary as she raised her hand to make an elaborate motion before the blood from the shuriken cut started flowing again. "Shiiiiit!" Anna complained, starting to shake her hand to try and get rid of the feeling before realizing that it was only exacerbating the problem.

Panda tried to stop a laugh, only half succeeding as she grabbed a bunch of her hair to shake at Anna. "And whatever. It is _not-_" Her eyes bugged as she looked down and found that her hair was indeed purple mixed in with the copper-brown. "HOLY SHIT THE PSYCHOS WHO BROUGHT US HERE DIED MY HAIIIIR!" Panda wailed in despair, before making a quick comeback. "Actually, that might not be a bad thing. I've always wanted purple streaks..."

"Luckyyy! All they did was cut mine!" Anna laughed, playfully pouting.

"Clearly our kidnappers are make-over wannabes," Panda said, nodding with mock seriousness as she explained her conclusion that was obviously right.

Just as Anna opened her mouth to say something, Panda's vision began to swim and she tried to put her hands to her temples, only to find that her muscles felt like jello. Anna seemed to be in the same condition as she mumbled a garbled phrase that was reminiscent of an expletive.

Their world went black again.


	3. Chapter Two

Author's Comment: Sorry it's so short. It didn't really fit in with any other chapters, so I went ahead and made it its own. :) Keep reading, and enjoy! Feedback appreciated. The other girl in this fic, Anna is: Soldier in Slippers.

Chapter Two

Everything was hazy, mostly dark but at some points things would become a little clearer and she was able to make out vague shapes, although most things were still dark grey as her vision faded in and out. Blurry snapshots were the best that she could conjure up, even when she was concentrating.

"Hey! Aburame Hideyoshi has just sent a message! His bugs have discovered survivors! Our group is following! Be on standby!"

Darkness.

Above her, she saw several faces, all wearing the same sort of headband. One had sunglasses and a high collar, the other a bandanna around his head and large glasses. Down a bit she thought she could see a green glow illuminating a green-haired woman's face, side by side with a man in a kitsune mask, also wearing a white, high collared coat.

"She's going to be okay. Her burns are bad, but she'll live. There's not severe` internal damage."

"And the other girl?"

"Likewise. Her burns aren't as bad, but she's got a lot more broken bones."

Darkness.

Wind. Lots of wind, and bodies. Green and brown blurred together... Were they moving through the trees this fast? No... Not possible. ...Unless they were where she knew that they were.

Darkness.


	4. Chapter Three

Author's Comment: At the bottom, you'll find a glossary for the words marked with asterisks (*). For other words you don't know, look them up or comment. ^-^ Feedback appreciated as always! I hope you guys like this chapter. :D The good stuff is starting! Chapter four is already underway. ^-^ The other character in this fic, Anna/Ayame is: Soldier in Slippers.

Chapter Three

The warm setting sunlight filtered in the window, making the girl vaguely aware it was verging on uncomfortably warm in the small room, divided in half by a blue-white floral patterned curtain. Despite the fact that the early evening sun wasn't that bright, she found herself squinting with a sharp pain on her pupils, which made her raise the question of How long had they been closed? This general awareness of self brought a shock of new questions: Who-? Panda. Murphy. When-? Evening. Where-? Hospital.

She breathed a sigh of relief. No more crazy dreams, or forests or anything. As much as she hated hospitals it was preferable to being lost, naked in a forest. However, her calm was quickly shattered as a woman came into the room with a headband holding back her hair; it was not the headband that disturbed her, but rather the sign on it– That of a calligraphic leaf.

Desperately, trying to hold onto some sense of normalcy, she gave a near-hysterical laugh.

"Haha! You like to cosplay?"

The woman blinked, setting down the tray with some medicine onto the desk next to the bed. "Cosplay? What's that?" She blinked again, giving Panda a curious look.

Laughing hysterically again, she nodded towards the headband. "You like Naruto, so you're wearing one of the cosplay headbands, right?" she said weakly, her last glimmers of hope fading quickly.

"Hmm? Naruto-sama? The Rokudaime? Of course I like him," she said with a frown. "He died rather recently, and he was one of our best hokages. Too bad Konohamaru-sama had to follow him so soon too," she lectured before going to open up the curtains some more, displaying a view that made Panda almost start to hyperventilate: A large cliff with eight faces that she recognized well as a dedicated otaku: Senjuu Hashirama; Senjuu Tobirama; Sarutobi Hiruzen; Uzumaki Minato; Tsunade-hime; Uzumaki Narutu; Sarutobi Konohamaru, or what looked like a much older version of him anyway; and another one that she didn't recognize.

She'd been right all along: they were exactly where she'd thought, but that would make her crazy– They _couldn't _be in Naruto's universe! The shuriken had first alerted her, and upon re-inspecting the glad and finding other various kunai and weapon marks on the trees, the woods had begun to take on an eerie familiarity– She'd seen it before, but she didn't want to remember where. Now with Naruto staring her right in the face, she couldn't deny it any longer.

The nurse began to speak once again, a slightly odd look on her face. "But the headband... You do know what they are, right? Being from Rigakure no Sato, you get a lot of trade, right? So you shouldn't be so isolated you don't even know what the headband is..." She decided to press on without waiting for an answer. "The headband, or forehead protector, represents the fact that you've chosen the path of the shinobi. Depending on what village you're from, you'll have an icon engraved to show others." She slipped off hers. "I have a leaf because I'm a medical ninja from here, Konoha – The Leaf village."

Panda was biting her lip, and hard at that, trying to regain some sense of internal equilibrium. Why had the nurse said she was from Rigakure? She didn't recognize the name, and if it had ever even been mentioned in the series, it would have at least had an inkling of familiarity. It must be a smaller, non-shinobi village. She'd also said it was a trade village... Desperately, she searched her memory for what "ri" meant; she'd been relatively good at picking up random bits of Japanese. Ri, ri... Jasmine! That was what it meant, Jasmine. It must be a trade center for produce, or herbs, or medicine perhaps, she thought, trying to think on her feet.

The nurse interrupted her thoughts again. "So, do you think you might have gotten a head concussion?" she asked, still frowning about the girl's lapse of knowledge concerning the headband.

"Huh? Concussion? Why would I have gotten a concussion?" This question brought rise to more urgent ones. "Why am I here anyway? How did I _get_ here?! _How do I get back?!_"

The nurse gave her a sad look. "Let me just ask you a few questions first; that way I can figure out whether you _do_ have a concussion." Panda opened her mouth to interrupt. "And _then_ I'll answer your questions. So, what's your name?"

Satisfied, she opened her mouth to answer, but automatically, the words just popped out. "Tsukino Hoshiko." Her eyes bugged, and she tried to say Murphy, then tell her that most people called her Panda. "Tsukino Hoshiko, but most people call me Panda." Why couldn't she say her name?! She concentrated all of her efforts on it, but only managed to get an "m" sound before Hoshiko slipped out again.

The nurse gave her another funny look and scribbled something on her clipboard. "Where were you born?"

"Rigakure, the Jasmine Village." Again, the words just popped out of her mouth, and Nashville remained firmly stuck in the back of her throat.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen." At least that had come out right.

"Alright." She seemed done with her questions, and she sat her clipboard down next to the bed. "Now, do you remember anything about what happened before you passed out? You were out for about a day here in the hospital after our troops found you in the woods."

Hoshiko started up to sitting. Anna! What had happened to Anna?! She was suddenly aware that she'd wrenched the IV out of place and the nurse was frantically pushing her back in place; she was probably afraid of losing her job for stirring up a patient.

In a voice as steady as she could manage, she squeeze the words out between gritted teeth, punctuating each word with a tense severity of voice as the nurse replaced the needle and rearranged the pillows, "Where- Is- Ayame?" She was too preoccupied with her friend's absence that she didn't even try to correct the Ayame/Anna discrepancy. The meaning was the same.

The nurse nervously glanced to the curtain beside the bed, but made no move towards it. "Uh... Really, I think you need to calm down and rest a bit before you see her, and--"

Hoshiko looked her dead in the eye, the steeliness of the gaze communicating her determination. "Don't make me get up."

The nurse gave another tittering laugh and shifted from foot to foot. She could, of course, restrain the patient, but in her condition it might do more harm than good...

However, before she was able to come to a conclusion, a cracked and dry voice came from behind the curtain that separated the small room. "Paaaanda?"

The nurse winced and hovered for a moment, uncertain as to what to do. However, at the first sign of Hoshiko moving to get up, she quickly hurried around the bed, and with another moment's hesitation, she drew the curtain back a bit so the two patients could see one another.

The girl who met Hoshiko's eyes bore no familiarity to Ayame. She was short with turquoise-green, brown-flecked eyes, full lips, and layered, blue hair that fell over her left eye and went down only a bit farther than her chin at its longest point. In addition, there seemed to be a tightness about her skin that she couldn't place for a moment before realizing – They were mostly healed burns.

After Hoshiko realized she was staring, she quickly recomposed herself and managed to stutter a bit before forcing some words out. "Who... are..?"

"Panda?!" the blue-haired girl said with a touch of panic in her voice. "I-it's me! Ayame!" She blinked, then shook her head. "I mean A-An-Ayame!" The girl looked as though she'd swallowed a frog.

"Ayame?" she asked, tilting her head and giving the blue-haired girl a bewildered look.

"No, no, no! A-Ann-Ayame!" Her eyes were starting to water. "Panda, what's going on?!"

Hoshiko sighed. It had to be Anna since she was calling her Panda and looking terribly confused at the names. "Can you give us a moment?" she told the nurse in a way that didn't really phrase it as a question; the nurse was looking bug-eyed as was. _Yeah, _she thought to herself. _You're doing a great job a making friends here._ She rolled her eyes internally and shrugged. It was the nurse's own fault for being so damn difficult. _Yeah. Right._ Again, she rolled her eyes internally. She'd be nicer to other people, and with hat she stopped trying to justify her actions.

The nurse, after a moment's hesitation, moved towards the door. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Also, since you seem to be in relatively good health-" _Obviously, if I'm being this bitchy_, Hoshiko thought, "-I think the ANBU would definitely like a word with you." And with that, she left, closing the door behind her.

Ayame was still looking very expectantly at Panda as Hoshiko turned to face her friend. "Hey," she said awkwardly after a moment, not really knowing what else to say.

"Hi?" Ayame said, also unsure of what to do. "So... What's... with our names?" she asked after another moment's pause.

Hoshiko sighed. "I don't know. Basically, as far as I know, whenever we try to say our real names, something else comes out – Like, you're Ayame and I'm Hoshiko. And I didn't even have to try to say your other name." She shrugged again, trying to put up a nonchalant face instead of showing her denial.

"What?! Why!? WHAT DID YOU DROP ON MY HEAD?!" Ayame almost shouted, regaining some of of her exaggerated, snarky tone that she usually talked in.

Hoshiko smiled for a moment. At least someone bounced back fast. However, the smile faded again at the request for an explanation, and she winced. "Like I said... I … Don't really know. I guess it might have something to do with where we are..." She kept her eyes, with difficulty, from flickering to the window and tried to subtly reposition herself to block the view from Ayame.

"Well... Where are we then?" she asked, almost impatient but confused at the delay.

"Um... Well..." Hoshiko's first instinct was to say 'I don't know' again, but the mountain outside prevent even a shadow of a doubt, so she tried to find a round about way of saying so she didn't have to completely admit it to herself. "Well... Did you see what got stuck in your hand?"

"Uhh... You mean the shiny?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding.

"Um... Wasn't that one of those ninja-star-thingies? Shukiren?"

Hoshiko shrugged. She was pretty close. "Shuriken, but yeah," she replied, swallowing. "And did you see the nurse's headband?"

Ayame shook her head no. "I'm not _that_ observant!" she complained.

"Yeah... it had a metal plate on it... with a leaf..." She shifted uncomfortably, but was forced to continue when her friend showed no signs of comprehension. "The nurse said she was going to get the ANBU," Hoshiko said, almost as aa last resort.

"Uhh..." Ayame blinked. "What's that?" she asked cocking her head.

Hoshiko closed her eyes. Of all moments for her friend to be dense, this was not the most opportune of them. Closing her eyes again and tensing for a second, she shifted out of the way of the window. "Look," she said, nodding towards the window without removing her eyes from her lap.

Ayame's reaction made Hoshiko want to lay down and die. "Is that Mount Rushmore?!?!" she exclaimed, craning her head for a better look at the 'presidents.'

Hoshiko clenched her fists and screwed her eyes shut as tightly as she could, in an attempt to control her exasperation, frustration, utter hopelessness... Whatever it was. When she felt like she could speak without screaming, she opened her eyes and in a very slow tone of pointed to one of the faces. "Did any of the presidents look like that? Pigtails with a diamond on their forehead?"

Ayame looked like she had been hit in the face with a brick as she squinted at the serious visages. "Is that that chick with the boobs from Naruto?!" she gaped, eyes bugging.

Hoshiko looked up again and nodded.

"W-what is this?! What kind of medicine do you have me on?! Or is that a poster or... DID YOU DRAG ME TO SOME SORT OF FREAKY COSPLAY TOWN?!" she shouted, attempting to pinwheel her arms about in what looked to be a painful fashion since one was in a cast.

Hoshiko answered in as quiet a voice as she could manage. "No."

Ayame flopped back onto her pillow and stared at the ceiling in disbelief. "That's impossible."

"Well, it kind of makes sense, doesn't it? The shuriken? The nurse's headband? And do you kind of remember the green lights when we passed out?" Ayame nodded, not looking away from the ceiling. "That's what healing ninjutsu look like. Shinobi hold their hands over the wounded spot, focus their chakra, and their hands glow green.

Ayame shook her head again. "No. We can't. That's impossible." She suddenly jerked her head and stared at Hoshiko, eyes showing a type of intensity that rarely surfaced. The only time Hoshiko herself could remember giving _that_ look was when Anna had asked what "dattebayo!" meant for what must have been the thousand-and-first time and then told Panda that she'd "accidentally" eaten all of her Pringles which she had been _explicitly_ not to do equally as many times.

Recovering some of the gravity of the situation, Hoshiko stared up at the ceiling herself before looking back at Ayame and asking in a very small, small voice, "Remember the text?"

Ayame balked and then pressed her lips together. "No." However, it was not in answer to the question, but rather denial of its implications.

"I don't see why not or how else – I mean, there's no other explanation," she replied, chewing on her lip while looking for something – anything – to show that her friend wouldn't just shut down. She needed her, and she knew it.

There was a long moment of silence between the two as Ayame and Hoshiko stared at the ceiling and the sheets, respectively, and, barely audible at the end of it, was a small admission that allowed the world to resume turning.

"Okay."

The ANBU interview was relatively uneventful. The nurses wouldn't let either of the girls be removed from their beds, so the shinobi were forced to do a joint interview, and it was obvious from their tone that they weren't happy about it either.

Hoshiko did most of the talking. She explained that the first thing that she remembered was waking up in the clearing with Ayame at her side before falling unconscious again. Telling the truth was the last thing that came to mind as an option for an alibi. After that, she played it be ear; from what she'd discerned, the attack had taken place at night, so she explained that they'd been sleeping when the raid on Rigakure began, or that's what she thought anyway. She'd probably run with Ayame, her next door neighbor and best friend, but later collapsed and been knocked out by the fall. She caught herself right before she mentioned the shuriken; it wouldn't do to show too much knowledge of detail. The funny thing was, her memories, which had been crystal clear less than an hour ago, were starting to seem fuzzy, like exactly what had been said there, or how exactly the place had looked, or how – She brushed it off; she was probably just tired and the events had been stressful enough so of course some of the details would be lost. Anyway, she needed to focus on the task at hand – The ANBU.

Ayame picked up on what was going on fairly well, considering on how oblivious and semi-retarded like she acted most of the time: The men in white, full-body coats with animal masks asking questions were ANBU; they were important; Hoshiko should do most of the talking since she was the authority on where they were; and the best she herself could do was nod and try and stop herself from making snarky remarks while backing up her friend's story.

After the interview came to an end, the ANBU explained what they knew (or at least what they saw necessary to say they knew):

"A group of bandits known among themselves as the Ryuu no Tsuyuharai* invaded your village as a way of alerting Hi no Kuni* as to its presence. Previously, its activities have been confined to Oto no Kuni* who haven't squashed the movement of their shortage of available shinobi – Between the ninja building their new stadium for the Chuunin Exams and those out on missions to pay for it, they've used their remaining troops to stabilize border patrol. However, now that the organization has moved into our territory, we have the power and means to dispose of them, especially with the aide of Otogakure.

"Their move was a typical one preceding coercion and demands of tributes. Similar terrorist tactics have often worked before – Ruthlessly destroy a village without reason, then order payment from other villages, using their fear of destruction and of the terrorists' irrationality to get to them, which produces an element of unpredictability. This so-called 'unpredictability' is very easy to see through, however, because their greed still governs their movements. Your village was not destroyed in vain – Konoha will catch the bandits, of course and their activities ended. However..."

The masked man stopped for the first time in his narrative and glanced at his neko-faced companion, then continued. "However, this came at a great price to your village. Greater than just your homes' destruction." He paused again, and Hoshiko thought she saw him sigh. "You two are the only remaining survivors."

Hoshiko's mind was empty, the void blank before a thousand thoughts burned to life:

The entire situation, his speech, his anonymity because of the mask seemed to be a horrible cliché, like a clip from a bad movie.

What bandits were stupid enough to challenge Konoha? Or had things changed that much since Naruto was around?

The loss of life was so cruel! Were they sure there were no survivors?

And – They honestly thought they were from the village?

But... There were no survivors, so –

They could live. They could build their lives around this story, or at least until they figured out what they were going to do.

However, – suddenly – inexplicably – she found herself sobbing at the sudden news. Part of her brain watched from a distance as the same part of her that insisted that shew as Hoshiko cried, cried for all of her friends and neighbors and family and brothers – Everything that she had know. Or "known" as one part of her brain corrected, but the realism was, well... Too real, and suddenly she found herself actually crying for all of those people – _her_ people – their children, and _her_ village.

Slowly, but very strongly, Murphy was changing, changing into a different person from a different world.

Hoshiko.

_Glossary:_

Rigakure no Sato – Lit., Village Hidden in the Jasmine. Not a real hidden village, just a small trade village known for its herbs; in the Land of Fire. Attacked by Ryuu no Tsuyuharai.

Ryuu no Tsuyuharai – Herald of the Dragon, a bandit group who attacked Rigakure

Hi no Kuni – Land of Fire, also where Konoha is.

Oto no Kuni – Land of Sound, where Oto is.

Otogakure no Sato – Lit., Village Hidden in the Sound. The village started by Orochimaru in the Land of Sound; no longer controlled by Orochimaru or any of his minions. Instead, after help from the other nations, it's built its own system of government and become a true hidden village.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Over the next month as Hoshiko slipped into her new persona, she began to realize that it wasn't so different at all; they had the same personality and mannerisms, so that wasn't so difficult. However, the shifting, the grafts made to her memory were.

Well, perhaps it wasn't exactly _changing_ her memories so much as pushing them to the back. Her old memories became more like knowledge, less personal as though it had happened to someone else, but at the same time, their closeness to her heart didn't change at all. They may have happened to a different person, but the emotions were still her own. The newer memories were her own on the other hand, but the emotions for the most part didn't touch her except for a handful of instances, like her tears at Rigakure's destruction.

In any case, her memories were not her top priority. They were, in fact, far from it. A more valid question – the one that _was_ her top priority – was what on _Earth_ she and Ayame were going to do. As more time passed and they healed, they were able to wander about the city in the afternoon, returning to the hospital at night to sleep in the guest rooms. So far, the village's shinobi had been too busy with Ryuu no Tsuyuharai, who were proving to be more troublesome than they had initially anticipated. However, fall they did, and soon the village's life continued its comfortable, easy motions.

As would be expected, as the shinobi returned and border patrols evened out, the priorities which had previously been neglected came back into play – Not the least of which were the two girls from Rigakure.

About a week after things had settled down a bit, Hoshiko and Ayame were notified that the Hokage wished to see them, and an appointment was arranged. Hoshiko had a bit of trouble beating Ayame into dressing properly, and trying to explain to her why they should be respectful was nigh impossible.

"Ayame, you can't wear your _night _gown to the meeting! That isn't done!"

"Why the hell not? I think it's plenty comfy enough," Ayame replied, pulling her covers over her head.

"The point isn't for you to be _comfortable_ – This is our first impression, and we only get one shot! Please please _please_ be good. I really really need you to get dressed! I promise I'll do all the talking and everything... Please?" Hoshiko pleaded with the lump under the covers as it tossed about in bed, shoving the pillow around her ears.

With a sigh, Ayame rolled over and looked at her for a long moment before groaning. "Fine."

Their clothes weren't the best – just some things that the nurses had lent to them; Hoshiko ended up in a white, spaghetti-strap sun dress that ended a bit above the knee, and Ayame in a black, V-neck wrap-around dress that ended mid-thigh.

Ayame complained some more when Hoshiko insisted on trimming her hair a bit to eliminate some of the uneven-ness caused by the fire that hadn't completely grown out yet. Hoshiko herself carefully combed her own hair, pinning one side up with a white lily and going with a bit of gold eyeliner. Ayame followed suite but in heavy black – her own way of continued grouching. Hoshiko let it go; she looked cute anyway.

The meeting took place during the late morning on the edge of noon, so they decided as they left the building to skip lunch and get it afterwards. The Hokage's mansion wasn't too far away, and they got there a few minutes early just to be polite. A few ANBU nodded at them as they entered, making Ayame nervous.

"Oh shut up! We haven't done anything wrong, so there's no need to freak about security guards!" Hoshiko hissed, discreetly elbowing her friend.

"Still! It just bugs me! I hate security guards! It makes me _want_ to do something wrong if I'm not already!" she hissed back.

With another elbow to her ribs, Hoshiko dropped the topic, heading up the stairs to where the Hokage's office would be, earning her an odd look from one of the ANBU since she shouldn't technically have known that, causing her to blush.

"That's going to bruise."

Hoshiko entered the office first, grasping the golden door handles when a voice told them that they could come in. The green doors swung open, revealing a view that was startlingly familiar yet new at the same time, causing her to inhale sharply – She'd seen the office in drawings, in the anime, but this... Being in it? It was beyond outlandish. The gasp earned her an odd look, but she weakly covered it with a cough and hoped that the man just passed it off as nerves from having lived in a small town all her life.

The hokage himself was certainly impressive, a credit to the line to be sure: He had tawny brown hair longer around his ears and reaching to the tips of his collar bone while shorter and spikier in the back. His eyes were a muted jade color, complimenting his pale skin nicely. A dusky maroon kimono hung loosely over his thin frame, the sleeves hiding all of his arms but the fingers and the obi tied loose enough to leave his chest bare for the most part down to his hips. The trim was a nice cream color with touches of maroon here and there, and the interior seemed to be a gauzy sky blue from the edges showing. The only other thing he seemed to be distinguished by were two tattoos around his neck: Two bubble-eyed goldfish curving gracefully, their faces just reaching his collar bone and their tails presumably nearly coming together on the back of his neck.

"Well, a please to finally meet you two," he said with a small smile, chin resting on interlaced fingers. "Introductions... You... would be Yami," he said, nodding towards Ayame. "... and you, then, Hikari, perhaps? Or Sayuri?" he indicated the other girl.

Hoshiko cocked her head and gave a small smile of her own, appreciating the pun. Ayame, however, remained completely befuddled.

"I jest, I jest," he laughed, moving on. He was used to people not getting his queer sense of humor.

"Wha-?" Ayame started to ask before Hoshiko nudged her sharply.

"Later."

He pretended not to have heard the exchange and continued. "No, no, I do know your names. But anyway, please take a seat, Kurogawa-, Tsukino-san."

Hoshiko blushed. No need for him to be so formal; it made her feel so awkward. Ayame, however, helped herself, plopping down onto one of the couches like it was her own living room. Hoshiko shot her a glare, and she sat up with a sigh. Bully.

The Hokage grinned; they were certainly an amusing pair. Rising, he went to take a seat on the opposite couch, eliminating some of the stiffness from the situation. "So, I suppose we should get down to business then. First off, do either of you have any questions?"

There was a moment of silence, then as Ayame's stomach growled, she started to raise her hand. "Do you have any – "

Hoshiko elbowed her, hard, and hissed in her ear, "If this has anything to do with food, I'm going to fucking kill you."

Ayame shut up.

As the hokage tried his very hardest not to laugh, Hoshiko herself attempted a quick recovery, blushing. "So, any news at all in terms of survivors?"

The hokage shook his head, returning to a more serious attitude. "None. We've searched the town over and tried to pick up whatever hazards remained in the area. A mass burial took place while you were still in the hospital. Also, there's been some correspondence with other villages as to how to deal with the site, in terms of whether or not to rebuild it. That discussion is being kept active, seeing as there currently aren't enough of the original inhabitants, of course, to warrant a full blown renewal, but some of the surrounding fields are still very fertile and in tact; some villages have expressed interest in rebuilding for these economic reasons," he finished, nodding.

Hoshiko hesitantly nodded as well before coming to her more important question. "So... Well, what... What exactly are we supposed to do? I mean, we don't want to impose on your and the hospital's generosity forever... I suppose I'm just worried about the future."

The hokage smiled, a reaction she hadn't really anticipated. "Well, quite down to earth and clever, aren't you?" -she blushed again- "That was technically the point of the meeting, besides the whole formality wish-wash," he explained with a dismissive wave of his hand.

With his legs crossed and the other arm draped casually across the back of the couch, his kimono displaying his abs, Hoshiko was having a very hard time thinking of anything but jumping his bones. She knew that Ayame was having similar thoughts, although more along the lines of yaoi. However, to get herself back on track, she pushed it out of her mind with her firm devotion to Kakashi and the fact that someone had to listen up, and it certainly wasn't going to be Ayame.

"You both have several options. First of, I'm fairly certain that you could move to most any of the hidden villages, if that suits you; you could participate in the debate about what to do with Rigakure if you wish, and perhaps move back, or," he paused for a moment, waiting for the information to sink in, "you could stay here. You'd be offered full citizen ship, if you wish, and the ability to pursue any course of occupation and living that a normal citizen would, be it as a shop keeper, worker, or..." he trailed off for a moment before quickly recovering, "kunoichi. It just depends on what you wish to do."

Hoshiko sat in shock for a long moment before glancing over to Ayame, who didn't seem to understand the magnitude of the offer quite as well. "I...I think, or, I mean, we think we might need some time to think about this," she said, trying to be as logical as she could.

"Oh, but of course. Just notify someone at the hospital to make an appointment with me or one of my advisors once you've reached your decision. There's no hurry; think it over," he said with a smile, waving them good bye as they stood to exit.

_Kunoichi?!_


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Thoughts whirled around in Hoshiko's head; there had been so much that had gone on in that short meeting... She had just assumed that once they were better, or healed up, or... whatever, that they'd go back. It was a game, and after they'd fooled around for a while, they'd end up back where they'd started – Crappy lives in crappy families with crappy microwave food and crappy schools. Sure, maybe they'd both miss one or two people but... Maybe there was more to be gained by staying here than going.

Hoshiko was brought out of her thoughts as Ayame tugged on her arm. "The hospital is this way!"

Hoshiko paused for a moment, turning to face her friend. It was still odd seeing her with blue hair, but at least her shortness of stature hadn't changed. With a sigh, Hoshiko spoke. "Do you even know what this _means?_"

"No."

Hoshiko sighed again, but refrained form rolling her eyes. "Come on, let's go this way," she said, dragging Ayame in the opposite direction.

Having been in Konoha for a few weeks, she generally knew the locations of most things; the destination she had in mind was the place that Kakashi had taken Team 7 for introductions and such – it seemed to be a good spot for explanations.

When they got there, it seemed just as picturesque as it had in the manga: Up a staircase, you arrived at a tunnel made of trees, at the end of which were a few stairs and a railed outcropping that enabled a beautiful view of Konoha. However, instead of Kakashi leaning against the metal, there was a young boy, a bit older than she was with dull red hair, a dust-colored v-neck sweater, and dark pants,

Hoshiko stopped at the end of the trees, afraid to intrude. Ayame ran into her back in surprise at the sudden stop, letting out a small "oof." The boy turned around, revealing vivid green eyes and womanly features.

"Oh... sorry..." he said softly, long fingers releasing the rail before leaving without another word.

Hoshiko was a bit surprised at the boy's quiet demeanor and hasty exit, and she was left speechless for a moment before moving out of the tree-tunnel with the complaint, "He stole my line!" With a blank look from Ayame, she continued, slightly irritated. "Remember, Aurora-sensei always said that I said sorry too much?! I've told you that already," she said, referring to her old science teacher that she'd been close with, one of the names whose change she couldn't get used to. She was one of the people she'd miss, probably the one she'd miss the most.

"Oh, right... sorry," Ayame replied, scrunching her mouth to one side apologetically. "Anyway, what did you drag me all the way up here for?" she asked, shifting her weight on one foot.

Hoshiko sighed and sat down, inviting Ayame to do the same. She started to speak as she looked out on the city: "What do you want to do?"

Ayame blinked. "Eh?"

"I mean... Well, what do you want to do? Do want to try and get back, or..." she turned and looked directly at Ayame, "do you want to stay and look at the hokage's options?"

There was an awkward pause where Ayame looked back at her, then down at her knees. "Well, what do _you _want to do?"

Hoshiko gave a small smile and looked back at the city, the sky above it turning a peach-ice-cream orange as the sun set. Ayame had given away her answer – She wanted to stay, but she couldn't bring herself to admit it. She'd had fun running around the city, acting crazy and stupid with her best friend, living out a wish that had been typed out in the middle of the night, but... Well, the standard thing to do when transported to a new world was to try and figure out how to get back, and who was she to break that social norm? Her answer was yes, she wanted to stay; she was just asking Hoshiko to bring logic, or some reasoning, to their side.

"Well, let's thinking of the pros and cons," Hoshiko replied, brushing aside her friend's question – she already knew the answer. "What would you miss from back there?"

"Hmm..." Ayame thought for a moment. "Well, I'd miss the puppies..." she started, referring to her dog's recent litter of surprises, "...my mom too, I guess... and... probably My Chemical Romance, since I doubt that they have them around here," she finished with a characteristic stupid comment and laugh.

Hoshiko grinned back and listed her own things: "Hmm... Aurora-sensei... My notebooks... My panda hat and electric guitar... and... probably your mom too," she said, laughing. The two, being best friends, really didn't have any other friends to miss since the most important one was there with them. In addition, when they visited each other during the summer, Panda had grown quite attached to Ayame's mother, which amused Ayame to no end.

Laughing and hugging her best friend, the blue-haired girl exclaimed, "She's mine, mine I said!" before bursting out into outrageous laughter as Hoshiko tackled her with a tickle attack on her sides. "FINE, FINE! WE CAN SHARE, WE CAN SHARE!" she shouted, tears in her eyes as she rolled about, Hoshiko on top of her with relentless assaults.

"Good," the brunette replied smugly, crossing her arms as she finally let the other girl up. "Just making sure," she said with a wicked grin. "Anyway," she continued, returning to a more serious attitude with a sigh, "Let's see... Most of my stuff was materialistic – I can always get a new hat, and even if I can't find one, we can always make one; same with the electric guitar, if I can ever afford it," -she gave a small laugh- "They won't be the same, sentimentally of course, but still. You can always get new CDs, and maybe even a dog – they won't be the same either, but we'll make do. Now... What would we gain by staying here?" Hoshiko asked, moving on to the next step.

"Well... um..." Ayame scrambled to put words to the feelings. "Well, we'd always be together, and... we wouldn't have to put up with siblings, or assholes and homophobe Christians at school," she reasoned, nodding.

"So really, out of both of our lists, the only things that we'll _really _lose would be the fanfiction and writing from my notebooks, and your mother. So...what's worth more to you, what you'll miss or what you won't?" she asked, bringing the discussion to its end.

There were a few, very long minutes of silence, and Hoshiko laid down, hands behind her head as the clouds, now a strawberry-marshmallow pink blew over with the breeze; she had to cross her legs so her skirt wouldn't blow too. Ayame soon followed suit, and at long last, she said, "So, what were the hokage's options again?"

For a moment, Hoshiko smiled at her decision, then actually caught onto her question."GYAH! You were just thinking about him in yaoi pairings the whole time, weren't you?!" Hoshiko shouted, flailing around as she sat up in frustration.

"...Maybe."

"GYAH!" she yelled again, an irritation mark appearing on her forehead. Ayame bounced back from being serious way too fast.

"Well... I was also thinking about him... in _non_-yaoi pairings... with certain people who are here..." Ayame trailed off with an idiotic smile plastered on her face.

"Oh, gee, I'm flattered," Hoshiko replied, rolling her eyes.

"Uhh..." Ayame shifted her eyes nervously, deciding not to tell her the truth. She hadn't caught the sarcasm.

"Anyway, I will explain this very logically, the way he explained it while you weren't listening." Hoshiko started, raising a finger.

"You weren't listening either."

"Was too! How else would I be able to explain this?" she replied, irked, another, larger irritation mark appearing on her forehead.

"You were trying not to listen," Ayame pointed at her, snickering.

"Why would I b**try**/b not to listen?!" Hoshiko half-yelled in exasperation, trying very hard to keep from smacking her companion.

"You know what I'm getting at! You were ogling him too!" she protested, pointing an accusing finger.

"No, that is the _default _setting! I _try_ to listen, I _do_ listen, and then I explain it to _you_ who was _not_ listening!" Hoshiko waved her hands emphatically, trying to get her point across.

"Well... I got more enjoyment out of it!"Ayame said as a last resort, giggling.

"SHUT UP!"

Ayame continued to giggle.

"I SAID SHUT UP, OKAY!?"

"Hehehehe... You're just mad because I'm right!"

"GYAH!" Hoshiko gave up trying to resist and smacked the top of her head, leaving a very large bump. "NOW. Let me explain this the way he did, very logically."

"A very pretty he..." Hoshiko slugged her in the stomach this time. "FUAHH!" she complained as she was sent tumbling backwards.

"Anyway, we have very many options. First, as Rigakure citizens, we could go and participate in the debate about what's going to happen to Rigakure, and then maybe we could live there-"

"So, we'd be, like, the only two people in a burnt out town?" Ayame interrupted.

"Gyuuuu.. He _talked to us_ about this _exact_ thing!" she said in frustration before continuing very slowly, as if she were talking to a three year old. "The rest of the villages would like to rebuild it because of the crops that are there, because-"

"So wait, they only care about the crops?!" Ayame interrupted again.

"Well, there aren't enough citizens to merit a full re-build-al thing! We do not count – Make no comment, I know what you are thinking-"

"Do we have a Hokage?"

Hoshiko groaned. "Noooooo! Ri-ga-kure! Does that _sound_ like a ninja village to you?! 'RI' means JASMINE!"

"Okay...?" she replied, staring blankly at her friend.

"Anyway, point being that-"

"Do they have ninja bacon bits? I really want-"

"GYAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! NO BACON BITS!" Hoshiko shouted at the top of her lungs, bringing her hand down on top of the other girl's head as hard as she could once more.

"OW!" Ayame yelped, rubbing her head in a futile attempt to ease the pain. Hoshiko, meanwhile, inhaled, trying to regain her composure. Ayame encouraged her, mimicking a yoga teacher "Deeeeeeep breaths..."

"CHAAAA!" Ayame's efforts earned her another smack.

"Maybe they have ninja anger management classes..."

Hoshiko attempted the Vulcan neck-pinch and, upon failing, began to instead do a poor imitation of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palm jutsu on Ayame's ticklish spots.

Between tears of laughter, Ayame managed to gasp out, "Sasuke would have benefited from it!"

"Okay, now that's true," Hoshiko admitted, momentarily putting aside her anger and stopping her 'jutsu.' As Ayame gasped for breath, Hoshiko took her chance to continue, once again raising her finger, not only as a sign of intelligence but also as a warning, seeing as it could lash out and poke her friend at any moment. "Anyway, that's the first option. We can go and help with the rebuilding of Rigakure which will probably take place for economic reasons, and... well, we've already established-"

"That we don't care about the economy?"

Hoshiko looked at her friend, utterly befuddled. "No we haven't... and of course we care about the economy!"

"I don't."

"Well you should! It feeds you, you know!"

"...Well as long as it does that, I don't care," Ayame replied stubbornly. Hoshiko sighed, and a sweat drop appeared on Ayame's forehead as she inched away, not wanted to get poked again.

"Moving on! Anyway, the hokage also said that we should feel free to move to other hidden villages-"

"Which are?"

Hoshiko's forehead turned blue with despair, and another sweatdrop appeared. "Well... alright... Not like I haven't told you this a zillion times already... Well, there's Sunagakure, and-"

"No, no, no, let me try! So there's the Village Hidden in the Leaf Pile-"

"No, no, NO! There is no Village Hidden in the Leaf Pile! There is the Village Hidden in the LEAVES! KONOHAGAKURE!" she said, trying her hardest not to have her seams burst from laughing so hard.

"But wait wait wait, wouldn't it be funny if Madara-Tobi hadn't stopped Sasuke when he was coming back to kill Konoha after Pein destroyed it and it actually WAS a Village Hidden in the Leaf Pile?!" Ayame said, flailing her arms wildly as she fanatically tried to explain her point.

Hoshiko wailed for a moment before desperately trying to return to explaining the villages. "Anyway, there _is_ no Village Hidden in the Leaf Pile! It's the Village Hidden in the Leaves-"

"So why are they called Hidden Villages anyway? It's not like they're hidden! Anybody can just walk right up to them!!"

"Because you _can't_ walk right up to them! You'd get attacked by the village's ninja!"

"But you know what I mean! They're not actually hidden!"

"Some of them are! Takigakure, or Village Hidden in the Waterfall is!"

"...Is it hidden by ninja?"

"No!"

"They can all be the Villages Hidden by Ninja instead of Village Hidden by the Whatever!"

"But Takigakure _is_ hidden in a waterfall!" Hoshiko argued, sticking her tongue out.

"Well, they can be that and everybody else can be Village Hidden by the Ninja!" Ayame said, sticking her tongue out too.

"Sh-"

"Ninja Village One, Ninja-"

"Sh-"

"-Village Two, Ninja Village-"

"SHUT UP!" Hoshiko shouted, finally cutting her off.

Ayame was silent for a moment, hand on her chin, and Hoshiko thought that she could continue. Ayame however, interrupted before she even got started. "You know, they could have numbers on their headbands-"

"Oh SHUT UP!"

"-and Orochimaru can have Village Number Thirteen!"

Hoshiko paused. "But thirteen is nice. I want thirteen."

"Let's go join Orochimaru's Village! That way I can tell Sasuke-"

"_I_ don't want to be raped."

"But I want to tell Sasuke that the back of his head looks like a duck's ass!" Hoshiko started to groan at the continued assaults on her brain. "AND WE CAN FIND SUIGETSU!"

"Gyahhh! I. Have. Already. TOLD YOU THIS! THEY ARE DEAD! THEY ARE ALL DEAD! Do you see Naruto walking around here anywhere?! If he's not around, they CERTAINLY aren't!! Konohamaru isn't even around!"

There was a long pause before Ayame pulled her beaten-puppy-face and said, "You had to crush my dreams?"

Hoshiko almost smacked her, then shook her head and continued. "Moving. On. There's-"

"We could also take Sakon and Ukon! 'Cause they're awesome!"

Hoshiko, however, could not resist the stupidity of it any longer and broke out into their theme song from the Naruto Fan Flashes. "-Just the two of us! JUST THE TWO OF US!"

Ayame was the one who did the smacking this time. "Hoshiko, shut up."

"Okay, I deserved that," she admitted, nodding before regaining her composure and blushing furiously. "A-a-anyway, we don't want Sakon and Ukon!"

"I do."

"No you don't! You think you do, but you don't!"

"Well how will we know unless we go get them?"

"We're not going to get them!"

"Well I still want Sakon and Ukon!"

"_Why_ do you want Sakon and Ukon!?"

"Because they have two heads and they're awesome!" Ayame whined.

"But they're _assholes!_ Didn't they die in a battle anyway? ...And even if they didn't, they'd be dead by now."

"There you go, crushing my dreams AGAIN."

"Well it's only when your dreams _deserve_ to be crushed."

"I think that if I want to have a two headed boy for a pet, I should be able to!"

"And _I_ think that if I want to date the hottest ninja that has ever lived, Kakashi, who has many puppies, and probably, well – Anyways, BUT HE'S DEAD OKAY?!" Hoshiko began to wail as tiny waterfalls of tears sprouted out of her eyes.

"You still have me!" Ayame said in an effort to comfort her.

Hoshiko sniffled a bit and stopped crying. "Fine... I'll settle for seconds..."

"Seconds! Hey!! I'm not a sloppy second!"

"Hehe, just kidding. It's okay, I love you!"

They both giggled for a second, hugging each other.

"Wait wait wait, which village did Suigetsu come from? The wet one, right?" Ayame started again, becoming preoccupied by fantasies once more.

"Oh... He was from... Kirigakure, Mist. And anyway, there are multiple wet ones! There is Village Hidden in the _Rain_, Village Hidden in the _Mist_, Village Hidden in the _Waterfall_-"

"-Which is actually the only hidden one-"

"-No."

"Is too!"

"AYAME!" Hoshiko finally cried out, her patience finally having run out. "Can I please just explain this? We've wasted probably forty minutes getting side tracked. Just let me finish, okay? We can go back to the guest rooms at the hospital and be as nutty as we want, but right now, we actually have to make decisions, okay?"

Ayame pulled a face. "Fiiine..." she railed off, resigning herself to the rest of the options.

With a sigh of relief, Hoshiko began to explain their options, this time without interruption. "So first, we could help with the rebuilding of Rigakure; I personally don't think that that would be the best option, but if you want to, I'll go. The hokage also said that we could go to other hidden villages if we want to – Like Konoha – crap, I should probably do English since you don't know them-" she interrupted herself, "Leaf, Sand, Cloud, Rock, Grass, Mist, Moon... If you're interested in this one, then I'll come up with a map or something and we can really look around. Anyway, the one that I, personally, think would be our best choice would be to stay here. The hokage's offered us full citizenship – We can do whatever normal Konoha citizens would: be workers, shop keepers, or even kunoichi," she finished, glad to have finally gotten through all of it.

Ayame raised her hand. "Can I ask a question now?"

"Sure," Hoshiko said with a laugh, leaning back on her hands.

"What's a kunoichi?"

Hoshiko rolled her eyes, this time playfully. "It's a girl-ninja. Shinobi refers to ninja in general or boy ninja; kunoichi refers to girl ninja exclusively," she explained, talking with her hands as well.

"Coooool... So we can be ninja?!"

"Yup!" Hoshiko replied happily.

"Wait, can I have a shiny? I want a shiny! Can I have a shiny?" Ayame said, unable to help herself any longer and returning to her hyperactive self.

Hoshiko got up to go, then giving Ayame a hand. "Sure... You'll have lots to shinies," she said with a laugh as the two began to head back towards the hospital.

"Can I make a necklace out of a shiny?" Ayame continued, almost skipping with delight.

"NO! You'll impale yourself, and I need you around! I mean, who else would drive me crazy?!" Hoshiko exclaimed, lightly whacking Ayame on the back of the head.

"Well... Can I make a necklace out of a kunai then?" she asked persistently.

"No! For the same reasons!" Hoshiko laughed again, rolling her eyes.

"Well, what can I make a necklace out of?!" Ayame whined, exasperated.

"Ummm... I dunno. A candy shuriken? You know, like those candy necklaces they have at raves? Like, the ones with the little elastic string with the candy beads on it, and you bite it and then you have candy in your mouth, and you have a necklace?" Hoshiko waved her hands, trying to explain the phenomenon; she was glad she could finally stop being the serious one.

"OOO! CAN WE HAVE A CANDY SHURIKEN SHOP?! I LIKE THAT IDEA, LETS DO THAT!" Ayame shouted, jumping for joy and running around in little circles, making Hoshiko start to cry with laughter.

"No! we're going to be NINJA!" she shouted back, poking one of her ticklish spots.

"Well we can be ninja shopkeepers! _Ninja shopkeepers!_"

"You can't be a ninja shopkeeper!" Hoshiko protested.

"Yes you can! You can ninja anyone who tries to shop lift!" Ayame explained, ecstatic.

"To ninja is not a verb, darling," she pointed out, lightly pushing her.

"Yes it is!" Ayame protested.

"No, it is not a verb!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

And this was the way they entered the hospital lobby, shoving and tickling each other as they giggled madly and the wisteria-purple sky turned to a dark blue-velvet.. The only thing that Hoshiko managed to gasp out before the two tackled each other into their room was, "Please -hehe!- make an ap -ha!- pointment with -HA!- the HOKAGE! HAHAHA!"

The door slammed shut behind them.


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

A few days later, Ayame and Hoshiko sat in the exact same position in the hokage's office as they had before, this time in more casual clothes that consequently fit less well. The hokage sat in the same position as well; this time his kimono was done up higher, for which she was glad. Maybe she wouldn't have to repeat everything he said afterwards.

"Back again so soon? It didn't even sound like you needed a good night's rest to decide, from what the receptionist said on the phone," he began with a small, knowing smile that made Hoshiko blush, and Ayame for a different reason. "So?" he offered, waiting for one of them to speak.

Hoshiko spoke, starting out awkwardly; she wasn't very good at this sort of thing, but better than Ayame. "We'd like to accept your offer of citizenship... And, well, perhaps, we'd like to pursue the path of kunoichi – well, if it's alright, or plausible, I mean," she said, stumbling over herself. The fact that Ayame said nothing meant that she was too deep in her own fantasies to notice... She'd have to explain this entire discussion again to her... Bother.

The hokage let out a small laugh. "Yes, of course. I assumed as much – I took the liberty to get citizenship forms ready for you, as well as those to receive financial aide as orphans. You are both fourteen or over, ne?" he asked, getting up and gathering up two packets of paper from his desk. Hoshiko simply nodded. "Good. You both are able to live without guardians. I'll have my assistants make the arrangements to reserve to apartments for the both of you; I'll have them try to make sure they're close together," he finished, handing Hoshiko both packets; he seemed to get the way things were going as well, which ordinarily would have made her laugh a bit, but currently she was a bit more preoccupied.

"Uhh, Hachidaime-sama, if it isn't too much to ask, would it actually be alright if we shared a flat? I'm pretty sure we would both prefer that..." she asked, briefly glancing over at Ayame for approval, who nodded – still distracted.

"Mm, of course. I should have anticipated as much – I'll see what they can do about that as well then. As for pursuing the path of kunoichi, that can also be arranged. Just had a class of genin graduate a few months ago; if we can arrange for you to have a private tutor, I'm sure you'll be able to catch up fairly quickly and join them. Does that sound alright?" the hokage asked, laying out the situation for them.

"Hai! That sounds great," Hoshiko said enthusiastically – It almost didn't seem real. Actually, almost nothing, it _didn't_ seem real. Having a discussion with the hokage about being shinobi?! Insane. Positively insane, and wonderful. Mostly wonderful.

"Well, that's about it, really. The forms shouldn't take you too long, and the sooner you get them in, the sooner we can start the rest of the process. There are some conference rooms downstairs you can use if you wish and just give them to the receptionist in the lobby when you're done, or since it's about time for lunch, you can give them to us afterwards. You don't actually have to get them done today, but it would be more convenient; it does look like you need some money to buy clothes," he pointed out with a laugh, making Hoshiko laugh as well, although slightly blushing. "I guess you can go then, if you don't have any questions," he said, getting up again to move to his desk to rearrange papers.

Hoshiko shook her head and stood up as well, dragging Ayame along as well. "Arigatou gozaimasu!" she said with a wave as the two of them exited, manila envelopes tucked tightly under one arm.

"So what happened in there again?" Ayame asked, clueless as usual.

Hoshiko rolled her eyes and pulled her out of the building. "C'mon. I'll explain over some ramen."


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"Are you ready?" Hoshiko whispered, hands behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. This was their first night in their new apartment which still smelled of fresh paint and their last before training started. The futon which they'd been sharing up until yesterday had been tucked away in the closet after the bunk bed had been assembled – Ayame had called the bottom bunk, scared that she'd roll off the top. Hoshiko had just rolled her eyes and gone with it; she'd had the top bunk at camp. The room was nice and clean right now, although she doubted it'd stay that way for long; three of the walls were white, the fourth one red. In terms of furniture, there was a cushioned chair in one corner, a desk with a rolling chair which Ayame had already started to abuse, and a nice fuzzy carpet. For their beds, they'd had the best time in picking their comforters – Hoshiko had decided on one with a scene from The Cat Returns on it and Ayame with one a giant cookie.

"Sure?" Ayame said in a questioning voice, refusing to take anything seriously as usual.

Hoshiko sighed. "You know, you could have said you didn't want to do this. It's gonna be hard."

She heard Ayame roll over and her feet hitting the floor before she was suddenly smacked on the head with the other girl's pillow. "Will you give it a rest already? Lighten up, baka!" Ayame exclaimed, and Hoshiko was pretty sure she saw her roll her eyes in the darkness before she slipped back under the covers. There were a few moments of silence before they both burst out laughing.

"See ya in the morning, love."

–

"Get up, get up, get up!" Hoshiko yelled, already dressed. The morning sunlight streamed in through the curtains that she had just pulled open, and as Ayame didn't move, she yanked the pillow out from under her head.

Ayame made an unhappy noise and pulled the covers over her head. Hoshiko wasn't about to take no for an answer as she yanked the covers away and threw them on the floor too. "Don't make me get the mattress off too!" she shouted, waving her arms about frantically. For a moment, it looked like she would have to, but her friend finally sat up with a groan, rubbing her eyes with one hand. "We have training today! Get up and get moving!!" Hoshiko yelled, pulling her up off the bed, shoving some clothes in her hand and pushing her towards the bathroom. "I'll get breakfast ready! Just hurry up!" she called out after her, moving like a whirlwind as she tossed the pillow and blanket back on the bed, then moving into the kitchen where she put on some coffee for Ayame and pulled out a Dr. Pepper for herself. As the coffee brewed, she made herself a bowl of cheerios and popped in some toaster strudel for Ayame. As she finished wolfing it down, she hurried back to the bedroom and grabbed a plain black backpack into which she shoved some cinnamon pop tarts and power bars for later – Ayame of the Bottomless Stomach tended to be very grouchy when she was hungry.

Moving back into the kitchen, she pulled the toaster strudel out and squeezed out some icing, then poured a cup of coffee, making sure Ayame's place was ready when she came out. Hoshiko was dressed in a black, belly-shower top with a chibi skull on it and a short-sleeved, purple hoodie on top of it with the hood down and no zipper. On her bottom half were short-shorts of a teal color and black, high-top converse instead of the traditional nin-shoes – She felt like the leaf icon on symbol ankle justified it. In terms of accessories, she had a star necklace, a purple and white striped baseball cap with a black brim on backwards, and black and white striped fingerless gloves.

Ayame stumbled out of the bathroom a few minutes later, hair still a bit damp from her shower although combed. She herself wore a sky-blue, spaghetti-strap tank top with a snowflake in between her breasts and black leather fingerless gloves with studs on the wrist and openings on the knuckles and backs. For her bottom half, she wore baggy, dark blue cargo pants with a hint of teal, complete with lots of pockets and rings to hang things from as well as a few chains around the waist; for her feet, she had black nin-shoes. With a grunt in the way of a greeting, she sat down to eat as Hoshiko cleaned up the kitchen, putting her bowl in the washer and tossing the used coffee filter.

After Ayame had had her daily dose of caffeine, she brightened up considerably and began her usual incessant chatter as Hoshiko sat down at the table with her and sipped her Dr. Pepper. "You know, with this haircut, I really look like Zexion!" she commented energetically, taking another bite.

Hoshiko rolled her eyes. "Thank god we didn't get sucked into the Kingdom Hearts Universe – Then _you'd_ have to explain things to me, and we all know how well that would go," she joked, giving both of them a laugh.

In another few minutes after Ayame had finished her breakfast and put on some eyeshadow as Hoshiko started the dishwasher, they were ready to go, Ayame grabbing her jacket on the way out. It was a black hoodie that zipped up in the front with "We fear that which we cannot see" in silver-blue on the left arm and an eye on the inside wrist of the right. It was finished off by a small snowflake on the front of the hood the same color as the writing.

About twenty minutes later, they'd arrived at the Academy, surrounded by swarms of little children coming in. "I see small people!" Ayame shouted, making a spin off of The Sixth Sense, which earned her a lot of odd looks, but a hard laugh from Hoshiko. Once the crowd had thinned out as the children filed off to their classrooms and the two finally had room to breath, they began to explore the building.

"So... The letter from the Hokage's assistant said room E12... E12..." Hoshiko pondered, trying to find the classroom.

"Umm..."

"What?" Hoshiko asked, turning to her friend. Ayame responded by pointing directly above them. E12.

"You know, _I'm_ supposed to be the oblivious one," Ayame commented, earning her a whack on the head before the two of them knocked and entered the classroom.

The man who sat at the front of the room was tall with an angular face and violet eyes; he wore a fishnet shirt underneath a collared, brown button-up top. Standing as they entered, he smiled warmly and introduced himself. "Ohayou! My name's Hayato. Hajimemashite," he said, nodding at them.

Hoshiko took the initiative, moving forward to shake hands with him. "Ohayou gozaimasu, Hayato-sensei! I'm Hoshiko, and this is Ayame," she replied, nodding towards her friend who grinned foolishly and waved, making him laugh. "Arigatou for agree to teach us," Hoshiko bowed and beamed, hoping to make a good enough impression for two.

"Haha, it's no problem. Well, let's jump right into things then, shall we?" he asked, inviting them to take seats in the front. "First of all, let's get you officially enrolled – Before we can start you have to agree to three conditions first." Hayato picked up a piece of chalk and began to write on the blackboard.

'To be admitted, one must be...

1. A person with love for Konohagakure who resolves to protect its peace and prosperity.

2. A person possessing an unyielding spirit who continuously puts in unceasing effort and training.

3. A person with sound mind and body. These are the three prerequisites for admission.'

"So, do you agree with these terms?" Hayato asked as he turned around, replacing the chalk to the holder and looking at them expectantly.

Hoshiko, of course, nodded brightly with a, "Hai, sensei!"

Ayame, however, took her time, musing over it. After a few awkward moments, she answered. "Yes, to the first two."

An annoyance mark appeared on Hoshiko's head and seemed to grow larger in her seat. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, BAKA?!" she shouted, fist coming down hard on the other girl's head. Hayato raised his eyebrows, this having been the first time he'd seen them in this sort of situation. He'd get used to it pretty fast.

"OW! What was that for?!" Ayame yelled back, rubbing her head. "It's not like I'm lying or anything like you are!"

Hoshiko growled and the annoyance mark got a bit bigger, but she held back her fist at least for another few moments.

"Neither one of us is sane in the least bit. I'm pretty sure 'of sound mind' is a statement of our sanity and its existence." Ayame stuck her tongue out.

"GYAH!" Hoshiko smacked the other girl again, but after a moment or two of looking at each other, they both broke out into uproarious laughter.

Hayato blinked and shook his head, hiding a smile behind his hand. Hoshiko recovered much more quickly than Ayame, and a sweatdrop formed on her forehead. "Oh, gomenasai, sensei! I'm so sorry!" she said, putting her fists in front of her mouth and blushing like she usually did when she was embarrassed. Ayame blinked at her, blankly wondering why on earth she was apologizing but shrugged and moved on.

With a small laugh, Hayato continued. "Haha, well I'm going to overlook your questionable sanity, and we'll go ahead and move on," he grinned. Hoshiko blushed a bit and grinned back, kicking Ayame under the table. She already knew what she was thinking about, but she needed to pay attention. "So, first off, let's start with some geography. Can either of you tell me what the Five Great Nations are, and what Hidden Villages they contain?" Hayato began.

Immediately, Hoshiko's hand shot up like the good little narutard she was. Mentally, a sweatdrop formed – She could already see the outcome of this; she was going to be the Hermione in this class. Ordinarily, other people would have made her seem average, but against Ayame...

"Okay, go, Hoshiko," Hayato nodded to her.

"Um, okay, the five hidden villages would be... Well, there's Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Iwa... and... Oh, crap, I can never remember the last one... Umm... KUMO! It's Kumogakure," she stated proudly.

Hayato nodded and smiled. "Okay, do you know what countries they're in?"

"Uhh..." Mentally, she was frantically trying to translate. "Okay, so Konoha would be in... Hi no Kuni, right. And... Suna would be in Kaze no Kuni... Kiri... Mizu no Kuni..." Hoshiko struggled for a moment, biting her lip as she stared at the ceiling. "Oh, crap, I don't remember, sorry," she blushed, ducking her head down.

"No, no, that's good! You got most of them. Alright, good job," Hayato said, pulling down a map from above the blackboard. "So, like Hoshiko said, the five great nations are Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure. The nations that they're in are as follows: Konoha is in Hi no Kuni; Suna is in Kaze no Kuni, Kiri in Mizu no Kuni, Iwa in Tsuchi no Kuni, and Kumo in Kaminari no Kuni. Got it?" he asked, turning around from pointing on the map to face them.

Hoshiko nodded vigorously and scribbled down the country names that she hadn't known in her notebook. Ayame silently nodded, and Hoshiko kicked her, handing her friend a notebook from her backpack. It took a death glare to get Ayame actually writing, but she at least did start to.

Hayato was trying hard not to laugh at their odd methods of communication but returned to the lecture. "Okay, so do you know what the five leaders of these villages are? I'm not talking about the daimyos, by the by," he said, still addressing Hoshiko.

"Oh! Okay, so for Konoha there's the Hokage; Suna has the Kazekage..." she said, thinking hard. There'd just be in an update in the manga about the meeting of the five kages, so she should know, but she was still blanking on Kumo's kage. "Kiri has the Mizukage, and Iwa has the Tsuchikage. I dunno what Kumo's is," she said, shrugging but trying to hide her blush. So easily embarrassed.

Hayato smiled. "Good, very good! You're right on all of them, and Kumo's kage is the Raikage. Alright, what other villages or countries do you know about?" he asked, not yet having given up on Ayame.

Hoshiko's hand shot up, and she temporarily thought about playing dumb for the rest of the class to make up for being such a know-it-all but brushed the thought aside quickly; Ayame didn't care, and she hoped that Hayato didn't. When Hayato nodded at her, she began. "Okay, so there's Kusagakure, Amegakure, Hoshigakure... Umm... Yukigakure... Otogakure... and... Takigakure?"

"Good. How about countries?" By now, he'd gotten the gist of things enough to know that Hoshiko answered, and when forced to, Ayame took notes.

"Umm... Kuma no Kuni, Mitsu no Kuni, Tori no Kuni... Gyah... Tetsu no Kuni... Kawa no Kuni, Cha no Kuni... Oh, and Nami no Kuni... Na no Kuni... That's really all I can think of off the top of my head," she laughed, rounding off her list.

"What about the Land of the Crescent Moon?" Ayame said, unexpectedly looking up from her notes; both Hayato and Hoshiko were surprised, but Hoshiko quickly recovered – That had been in the third Naruto movie which she'd taped on Cartoon Network.

Hayato acted as if nothing had happened, continuing. "Well, that's a good one. Tsuki no Kuni..." he wrote, adding it to the very long list on the board. "Now, other ones you guys missed would be... Oni no Kuni, Mori no Kuni... Yama no Kuni, Ishi no Kuni... Numa no Kuni, Tanima no Kuni, Oto no Kuni, and Hayashi no Kuni. You did a pretty good job for your first try," he said, smiling. "Now, for tomorrow, I want you to have all of the Villages memorized, and for Thursday all of the countries. The quizzes will be part labeling, and part multiple choice. So, on to a more difficult question. Are referring to Suna, Konoha, Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa as the Five Great Nations technically accurate any more?"

Both of them stared at him blankly.

_Hmm... Well, Hoshiko had a pretty good idea, but she only named the old countries. Maybe Rigakure's library was just outdated,_ Hayato reasoned before continuing."Alright, well the answer would be no. The Five Great Nations were formed back even before the time of the Third Hokage, and now that we're on the Eighth, times have changed significantly. Now, these are some changes you're going to want to take note of, so pay attention carefully. Out of the Five Great Nations, all of them have witnessed some changes in the balance of power. More power has been moving towards smaller countries as well as the economy becomes more important. Konoha isn't the best example since changes are minute, and there's always been a good bit of trade with other countries, but take Suna for example. Suna has declined in power and is currently enduring a period of severe economic hardship; Kumo is struggling to fend off invaders as its main clans collapse its quality of shinobi education is lowered. Iwa was declining in power, but they recently got a new Tsuchikage, and she's been impressive. Kiri has experienced just about the same degree of change as Konoha has, but grown a bit bigger instead of smaller.

"Nations that are significantly rising in power to be as large and powerful as the Five Great Nations include primarily Yukigakure and Otogakure. Can anyone tell me what countries those two shinobi villages are in?"

Hoshiko's hand shot up. "Yukigakure is in Haru no Kuni, and Otogakure is in Oto no Kuni."

"Good. Haru no Kuni is the technical name, but it's commonly known as Yuki no Kuni. Yuki has the best technology of any of the nations, including climate control. It used to be winter there all year round, but several generations back in the time of the Rokudaime, Uzumaki Naruto, there was a political shift and the technology was put into use. They officially changed their name to the Land of Spring, or Haru no Kuni, but most people still refer to it as Yuki no Kuni. How much do you know about Oto?" he asked, once again nodding to Hoshiko.

"Umm... Well, I know that back when Naruto was a kid, Orochimaru started the village in order to have a headquarters for all of his operations. He did a joint attack with Suna on Konoha, exerting his control... A few years later, I know that Uchiha Sasuke killed him, but other than that, I've no idea," she shrugged.

_Again... Limited knowledge. Oh well. Must have been a limited resources thing._ "Good. Well, after the death of Orochimaru, Konoha suffered from several attacks by the Akatsuki. After the rebuilding of the city and other loose ends had been taken care of, Suna united with Konoha and cleansed out Oto no Kuni, freeing prisoners and prosecuting his old followers. Some of his unwilling followers, such as the Fuuma clan, wished to stay and make Oto a legitimate village, however, so we left them to it. Eventually, the village grew enough under a steady hand to become legitimate, so while there are still strong prejudices against it because of its founder, it's grown and become a powerful, legitimate nin-village. Alright, let's finish up the Hidden Villages, and then we can break for lunch – Good job, you guys, you're doing really well," Hayato encouraged, rewarding them with a warm smile.

Hoshiko kicked Ayame as her eyes began to glaze over again. Willing their telepathy to come in handy, she thought as hard as she could, _STOP OGLING HIM AND PAY ATTENTION!_ She at least got a look in her direction, but that was probably because of the kick.

"Alright, let's start out with Amegakure. Amegakure has been a village long suffering because of it's location. Because it's stuck between the great nations, it's been a primary war ground in the past, leading its government to be unstable. Recently, as wars have declined, it's become more peaceful and a stable government has arisen. With help from other nations, it's begun its own shinobi program so as to protect itself in case it ever needs to.

"Hoshigakure has also risen significantly with much hard work from its inhabitants and shinobi. It's gotten its own daimyo for one, as well as become quite respected among the shinobi nations. In terms of alliances, it's certainly not something to sneeze at because of its shinobi, economic benefits, and natural defenses.

"Kusagakure has also risen as Kumo as declined, developing its own clans. Because of the Cloud Village's declining reputation, several of the more prominent shinobi have transferred their alliances to Kusa for the rising benefits. In terms of comparisons, it's about where Oto was in the middle of their ascent.

"Ayame mentioned Tsuki no Kuni and its hidden village, Tsukigakure; both of these have risen in power in the same methods as Kusa – Development of bloodlines as well as creating a very steady base for its economy by investing in sailing, tourism, and fishing.

"Takigakure's power, like many others, has risen because of its good economy. In addition, the shinobi training program in the village has expanded and become more famous as the years have passed. Like Hoshigakure, it's alliance is also one to be held in high respect. Currently, besides the Hero's Water, the other thing of note about it would be its seer. Recently, a small trend has developed, possibly a new bloodline, creating this child who has limited views into the future; during wars, negotiations, and virtually any other activities, Taki's held in high regard.

"Two other smaller villages have also begun to be worthy of taking note – Tanima no Kuni, currently without a named shinobi village, has been gaining military prowess as well as using livestock for their economic base. Konoha has also helped start up a few other settlements, the one in Numa no Kuni having been particularly successful. Numa no Kuni and Konoha have had good relations for quite some time now, shown by things such as continued trade with reduced tariffs, escorts, and other such actions. At the country's request, Konoha made a good will gesture by helping them establish their own Academy for shinobi training, which has so far produced several ninja that are good by the standards held for up-starting villages." Hayato finally breaked, with a sigh. "Alright! Kami-sama, you guys are focused. It's certainly a refreshing change from little kids whose attention span is shorter than a puppy on espresso," he laughed. "Well, let's take a break for lunch, shall we? We'll meet back here in forty-five minutes."

_Glossary:_

Hai – Yes, Okay

Baka – Idiot

Hi no Kuni – Land of Fire, where the Leaf Village is

Konohagakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Leaves

Kaze no Kuni – Land of Wind where the Sand Village is

Sunagakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Sand

Mizu no Kuni – Land of Water where the Mist Village is

Kirigakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Mist

Kaminari no Kuni – Land of Thunder where the Cloud Village is

Kumogakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Clouds

Tsuchi no Kuni – Land of Earth where the Rock Village is

Iwagakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Rocks

Hokage – Leader of Konoha, lit. 'Fire Shadow'

Kazekage – Leader of Suna, lit. 'Wind Shadow'

Mizukage – Leader of Kiri, lit. 'Water Shadow'

Raikage – Leader of Kumo, lit. 'Lightning Shadow'

Tsuchikage – Leader of Iwa, lit. 'Earth Shadow'

Kusagakure – Village Hidden in the Grass

Yukigakure – Village Hidden in the Snow

Amegakure – Village Hidden in the Rain

Takigakure – Village Hidden in the Waterfall

Otogakure – Village Hidden in the Sound

Hoshigakure – Village Hidden in the Star

Kuma no Kuni – Land of Bears

Tori no Kuni – Land of Birds

Oni no Kuni – Land of Demons

Mitsu no Kuni – Land of Honey

Tetsu no Kuni – Land of Iron

Mori no Kuni – Land of the Forest

Tsuki no Kuni – Land of the Crescent Moon

Yama no Kuni – Land of Mountains

Kawa no Kuni – Land of Rivers

Ishi no Kuni – Land of Rocks

Numa no Kuni – Land of Swamps

Cha no Kuni – Land of Tea

Tanima no Kuni – Land of Valleys

Hayashi no Kuni – Land of the Woods (different from Mori)

Na no Kuni – Land of Vegetables

Nami no Kuni – Land of Waves

Oto no Kuni – Land of Sound

Haru (Yuki) no Kuni – Land of Spring (commonly referred to as Land of Snow)


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Lunch passed quickly for Hoshiko and Ayame, and Hoshiko clarified what areas she could as well as explained what was new to her; it helped her digest it better if she taught it to someone else. Ayame actually seemed a bit interested, although that might have just been some of Hoshiko's enthusiasm rubbing off.

When they returned to the classroom, Hayato was already waiting with a list of countries to cover, and the two of them slipped into their seats, ready to pick up right where they'd left off.

"Alright, guys, we're going to cover some rudimentary parts of other smaller countries and leave details of the larger ones for another day. After this, we can get into things more focused on Konoha, like its history and clans," he smiled, straightening up some papers before beginning to lecture again. "Many of these Hoshiko mentioned, so you might know a bit about them, but we'll go over it just in case.

"Tori no Kuni is a small country whose daimyo position is passed down from mother to daughter. Many clans and kekkei genkai have been thought to come from that area because of the diverse landscape – It's said to have the most biospheres of any nation on this continent.

"Oni no Kuni doesn't actually have a daimyo, but is ruled by a priestess with psychic abilities to seal demons and foresee deaths; it's theorized that some inhabitants of Kusagakure may have come from Oni because of the advanced sealing jutsu used in both places.

"Na no Kuni is one of the biggest allies of Konoha since the great Rokudaime in his early years saved the daimyo's daughter long ago. They are one of the largest produce exporters, and any country would have trouble acquiring enough food for its inhabitants without its help. Na has some shinobi, although their caliber is mediocre at best."

Hoshiko was furiously writing down notes, listing the country name and then everything else in bullet points beneath – Ayame was much more sparse in her writings, but she digested it just as well, although not as obviously.

"Ishi no Kuni is a valuable center of religion," Hayato continued after taking a drink of water, pointing at each of the countries as they came up. "It's leader, not technically a daimyo but of the same status, is also in charge of not only politics but also the religion of the country, and his presence is very welcomed at all events. Because it is near Tsuchi no Kuni, it shares many of the same geological phenomenons, like arid land and lack of greenery." Hayato momentarily paused, looking down at his list to see what he hadn't covered.

"Cha no Kuni is also important because of the shrines present in the land. Annually, there is a race around the islands, which usually affects which clan inherits the daimyo seat. Cha is made from a peninsula on the main continent, as well as two other large islands: Nagi, which houses the Morodoki shrine, and O'uzu which has Torodoki shrine. The main country has the very profitable Degarashi port.

"Mitsu no Kuni is to livestock as Na is to produce; all of the countries rely heavily on it for meat and other animal products. It's important that ninja on missions pertaining to Mitsu always be very courteous.

"Mori no Kuni is a large exporter of forest products including exotic flowers, fruit, and timber. To make sure that the forests that give the country its name remain intact and healthy, however, strict regulations environmental protection are enforced." Hayato took a break to take another drink.

After a few more minutes to let the two catch up, he resumed his narrative, trying to make his explanations shorter. "Kawa no Kuni has the most water of any other country without a border on the coast. Kawa is famous for the many mineral and precious metal mines there, as well as the founding famous chain restaurant, Inochi no Karē, which has expanded to all five of the Great Nations."

At Ayame's blank look, Hoshiko wrote '_Curry of Life_' in the margins, underlining it enough so that she looked over. Ayame gave a small nod, and they returned their attention to the lecture.

"Four more guys – Hold on," Hayato reassured them again, not wanting to make them feel under appreciated; usually this lecture would take place over the course of three days with the younger kids, but... Well, for whatever his reasons, Hachidaime-sama had told Hayato to push the two of them and see what their limits were. "Nami no Kuni is one of the biggest seafood exporters, rivaling even Mizu no Kuni. Mizu has trouble keeping up with Nami because of the fact that Mizu also has Kiri to finance, therefore taking away from what they can invest in that industry.

"Tanima no Kuni recently started a small shinobi village, although they've kept to themselves a good bit. There relationships with other countries are minimal, and very little is known about them because of the strict border regulations.

"Hayashi no Kuni borders Tanima no Kuni and seem to be one of the only countries that Tanima has contact with. Hayashi has a very, very poor economy currently and is heavily dependent on other countries and villages. They used to have a shinobi village, but it was destroyed because of the wars it constantly provoked.

"And our last one, Tetsu no Kuni, is a must-know for all ninja. Tetsu no Kuni isn't in fact a ninja country, but has a very powerful army but not of shinobi – Instead, it uses a different type of warrior called the Samurai. It always remains neutral in fights among the great nations; it's leader serves as a mediator in the very rare meetings of the five Great Kages, and no nation has dared attack it in centuries," Hayato finished with a small sigh, taking another drink; this was wearing on his throat. "Do you guys need a break? Five minutes to stretch your legs?" he asked as his two students looked up from finishing their notes.

Ayame took her chance, jumping up and nodding. "Alright! I'm hungry; Hoshiko, let's go find a snack machine!" she almost shouted, grabbing the other girl and dragging her out the door.

"Gyah!" Half way down the hallway, Hoshiko managed to disentangle herself and walk on her own as opposed to being dragged. "You know, we could have just _asked_ him if there was a snack machine anywhere around here," she pointed out sourly, rubbing her arm.

"Yeah, yeah," Ayame said, not really listening at all as she peaked around the corner. "OO! THERE IT IS!" she yelled, grabbing hold of Hoshiko again and dashing off, her friend flailing helplessly behind.

Five minutes and a head-lump later, Ayame returned to the classroom munching happily on a chocolate bar as Hoshiko dragged her back to her seat, irritated with her friend's hyperactivity.

Hayato let out a small laugh and turned to a new page in his lecture notes. "Alright, guys. We're going to move on to Konoha's specific history," he paused, allowing from them to open a new page in their note books and Hoshiko to swat Ayame before wiping a chocolate mustache off from around the other girl's mouth. "Konohagakure no Sato was established about eighty years ago. It was founded when a gifted shinobi called a group of ninja together deep in a forest. Does anyone know what that ninja's name was?"

Hoshiko's hand shot up immediately while Ayame sat looking clueless, and Hayato nodded for her to continue. "Senjuu Hashirama," she answered quickly, enjoying knowing most of the answers as opposed to her typical average intelligence back at her old school.

"Good. Anyway, he formed a unit away from other civilian villages and later became the first Hokage. Early on, an overwhelming majority of the inhabitants were shinobi, but after the Ninja World Wars, the town began to diversify. Now there are many residents who are employed in a wide variety of occupations. Located at the center of the five great nations, Konoha has benefited from open cultural exchange with the surrounding countries.

"The Academy was started by the second Hokage. Anyone know his name?"

"Senjuu Tobirama!" Hoshiko blurted out as soon as Hayato nodded at her again.

Hayato smiled at her enthusiasm. "Changes have been made since his time, of course. For example, there used to be special kunoichi classes for refinement and such, but it was dropped as sexist. The Academy has also undergone several expansions to what it is today, and a teacher's exam was instituted as well. Usually, the only teachers we have here are advanced chuunin since jounin are typically needed elsewhere.

"The progression of the curriculum here is fairly standard – We start out with the basics; after entrance, students undergo basic training and education, mostly lecture. Drills follow next, where classes in ninjutsu, physical control, and the handling of ninja tools are taught. Lastly before the exit exam, practical application is taught where qualifications are obtained and drills are further enhanced." Hayato paused, waiting for them to catch up, and after a few minutes, he cleared his throat again and smiled at them. "This is the last topic we'll cover today, and it shouldn't take too long, depending on how much you already know."

Ayame grinned, already thinking about food again, and Hoshiko perked up, wondering what the topic was.

"Alright. So today, we're just going to do Konoha's clans, which is what we'll focus mostly on, and finish up with a few important clans from other villages. Okay! So let's get started. The Hyuugas are perhaps the most famous clan of Konoha. They have the rarity of a kekkei genkai, or bloodline trait; theirs is called the byakugan, and it allows them to see their opponents chakra network while activated. With their physical technique called Gentle Fist, or Juuken. They are said to be the root of all doujutsu*, with other clans having evolved off of them.

"Two of them are currently know, both in Konoha. Originally, there were the Uchihas. Because of the Uchiha Massacre by one of their own members, the clan was reduced to two. After murder died, his younger brother – the only survivor from before – died soon after as well. They are remembered especially for their ability to copy jutsu and their quickness of movement because of their doujutsu, the sharingan. Unfortunately, they are completely extinct now, and thus the bloodline with them.

"The most recent evolution of the Hyuuga's doujutsu – or believed evolution – has manifested with the Ketsuens. The clan started as a very small family during the middle of the Rokudaime's reign and has recently increased. Their powers are much like the Hyuugas, but much more ritualistic; they see blood, although to do so they have to blind one of their eyes. Knowledge is still limited about them, but they've been very cooperative in terms of research." Hayato stopped again as his voice cracked a bit; rarely did he talk so much seeing as younger children needed more breaks and physical activity – He'd have to work on giving them some sort of reward, or doing something fun.

After another drink, he continued. "The Kurama are the second oldest clan in Konoha today with a kekkei genkai. Although they started simply as a clan specializing in genjutsu, eventually, they started to manifest a kekkei genkai. However, this only manifests every few generations, and the effects are very powerful – The effects are to bring reality to the genjutsu, that is to make the effects of what happens in the genjutsu real. Actually, one of the genin senseis has manifested this kekkei genkai, the first in several decades.

"Now, these are all of the clans that have specific kekkei genkais; however, you don't have to have a kekkei genkai to be a clan; instead, you could just have a Hiden, or secret, jutsu. Most clans today have this instead of a kekkei genkai. One of the oldest clans in Konoha without a kekkei genkai is the Aburame; they're known for their symbiotic relationship with insects that reside inside of their body just below the skin. The bugs are especially deadly because they eat chakra, making the relationship mutually beneficial – The bugs get shelter and food, and the shinobi get a valuable weapon. Members of this clan don't use ninjutsu because of the insects, but can perform techniques similar to them with their bugs; also, their relationship allows communication between the two so the Aburame have frequently been used as spies, since the bugs are a very discreet means of espionage. Their rivals, the Kamizuru, also use bug-centric ninjutsu, but in their case, their ninjutsu use bees. The Kamizuru reside in Tsuchi no Kuni, and were defeated long ago in a great battle between the clans. Now, however, the Aburame are declining in numbers because of inbreeding that has been taking place for so long." Hayato paused. "Any questions? Unless you've seen them in action, it can be hard to understand."

When neither of them said anything, and Hoshiko just shrugged with a smile, he cleared his throat to continue. However, their notebooks caught his eye. Hoshiko, it seemed, was writing very little, and Ayame a great deal, which seemed out of character. From his first impressions, Ayame was the slacker -or at least pretended to be- and Hoshiko was the work-a-holic; therefore, he would have thought their notebooks would be reversed. Perhaps she'd had prior knowledge from Rigakure, but there seemed to be a distinct end to their knowledge... It puzzled him, but he continued to try and put it aside.

Hayato continued with his lecture, moving to other older clans of Konoha, including the Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Nara, the Akimichi, and ending with the Senjuu. "The Senjuu are the descendants of the shinobi who originally started this village – the first Hokage, Hashirama-sama and his brother Tobirama. Although there is no technical kekkei genkai or Hiden jutsu, they're still a tightly knit family whose members have all been exceedingly powerful, from the brothers and their students, and later their granddaughter, Tsunade-hime, the Godaime, and her students. Hashirama had a unique ability, however, called Mokuton jutsu. Mokuton is the combination of wood and earth elements to create wood; so far, it's been determined non-genetic, although we've been careful to keep an eye on it."

Looking up, he noticed that both of them looked tired; Hoshiko was trying to discretely shake out the cramps in her hand under the table. Hayato smiled – They'd done remarkably well. Why not split it into two days? It was a good segway anyway; they'd finished with all of the older clans, and now they were into the newer immigrant clans that had only been in Konoha for ten to twenty years. Standing up, he grinned at them. "Alright guys! What do you say to a field trip? I'll get you both something to eat for an early dinner. Whaddaya say?"

Hoshiko looked pleasantly surprised. Ayame tackled him from over the table.

"RAMEN!"


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

The next day dawned early. For Ayame, it was too early, for Hoshiko, not enough. The previous night had gone well with Hayato-sensei; they'd discussed trivial matters, like the weather and what they liked to do, what their favorite foods were and how they were adjusting to their apartment. Overall, Hoshiko had left feeling largely satisfied. Ayame had wanted more ramen. Hoshiko had smacked her, saying it was rude to drive their sensei into poverty just because of her appetite.

Hoshiko had already set out breakfast when she shook Ayame -violently- into wakefulness. The rice was steaming on the table next to bowls of miso soup. "Aww, Panda, what about pop tarts?" Ayame complained, the subject of food dispersing a bit of her grogginess.

"Absolutely not," Hoshiko stated, well awake because of her excitement. "If we're going to be living on our own, we have to have at least _one_ healthy meal a day. Hey, I'm not making you eat eggplant or anything!" she defended at Ayame's pitiful look.

Her friend finally just make an unhappy face and sat down, Hoshiko joining her on the other side of the table. Hoshiko finished quickly; despite not being a morning person, if she had something to look forward to -like learning to be a kunoichi- she moved at the speed of light. As soon as she'd finished, she cleared her dishes and retreated back into her room to thrown on some clothes; she'd decided that she definitely loved the punk-ish look with the belly-shower and shorts, so she went with that again. Ayame finally finished up breakfast, but Hoshiko beat her to the bathroom, brushing her hair out well before deciding to swirl it into a bun to keep it out of her face while taking notes. Taking her tooth brush into the kitchen, she let Ayame have the bathroom. Hoshiko finished up in the bathroom with Ayame as they both took turns applying eyeliner, and within minutes of grabbing her backpack, the more eager of the pair was already marching out the door, short counterpart in tow.

"Ohaiyo, Hayato-sensei!" Hoshiko said brightly as she burst into the classroom, Ayame still being dragged along and looking thoroughly disheveled. Hayato didn't fail to see the soda in the brunette's hand and just smiled; he didn't know which of them to feel sorry for for having to live with the other.

"So, are you girls ready to jump into it? Today we'll still be lecturing most all of the time, but this'll be the last full day of solid information; tomorrow we start with bits of field training." Ayame gave a wicked grin at Hoshiko, making the other girl sweat drop. She did _not_ want Ayame with any sharp or pointy object, but she didn't seem to have a choice. With a laugh, Hayato rolled his eyes and began to talk.

"So, today we're going to start talking about the clans that have immigrated here or developed starting from the end of the Godaime's reign. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to go in chronological order.

"There were two clans that immigrated to Konoha at the end of the Godaime's reign and at the beginning of Naruto-sama's. The Akimoto were the first to start this trend. Originally, they were from Amegakure, but it appears as though no clan members remain there. Due to splits in the clan, there are branches scattered all over the continent, but the largest to date is here in Konoha. The Akimotos are known for their utilization of ribbons as a ninja weapon: By channeling their chakra through their special, silk-like cloth, they can animate the ribbons, and at the age of twelve, Akimoto shinobi are wrapped in in this, their limbs covered, torso just a mask of fabric. Rarely is this removed, though changes of the ribbon are somewhat common.

"The Nishizawa were the next to immigrate from a small country now destroyed by war. In essence, they are precisely like the Inuzuka, but they deal with cats instead of dogs. Appropriately, they are nicknamed the 'Nekozawa.' Unlike the Inuzuka, their feline companions do not remain with them at all times; instead they are summons specific to each clan member, but there are a variety of ways in which they can be summoned. The Nishizawa are known for their cleverness and ingenuity when it comes to summons, and even the most harmless looking of objects could well become a summon or a weapon for them." Hayato paused momentarily for them to catch up in their notes. There were only a few clans they hadn't covered, so today would be fairly light.

"The Kitamori are a representation of the strong ties between the Leaf and Mist. As the myths go, one of Kirigakure's most prominent ANBU fell in love with one of the Hokage's attendants. Eventually, they had several children. The reason they're called a clan today is because of all of the descendants' strong affinity to the water element, Suiton. In fact, one of the most prominent Konoha nin of the current age who recently passed away, an ANBU by the name of Kiyo, was a member of this clan. Her skills were incredible, rivaling that of the Nidaime, if not even _surpassing_ them. In any case, the first of their children started appearing in the ranks of the academy just before the Godaime's death. Kiyo-sama was at her peak during the middle of Naruto-sama's reign.

"At the end of the Rokudaime's reign, another clan appeared from Oni no Kuni. As a result of their village being ravaged in the national turmoil, now settled, the Yoshizen fled to Konoha. Their clan traits were just beginning to appear, and some of the shinobi began to take note of their abilities. Much like the Nishizawa and Inuzuka, they too specialized in summoning jutsu. Theirs dealt with butterflies, but there is far more to their clan that meets the eye; indeed, one of the most valuable strategies that the Yoshizen utilize is how many shinobi underestimate them. Surely you can understand – After all, do _butterflies_ sound particularly threatening to you?" Hayato cracked a grin, and Hoshiko groaned at Ayame's wicked look. It was all she could do to pray that Ayame never consciously ran into one of them. "Anyway," Hayato continued, "the butterflies simply augment their many other techniques. It's been confirmed that many of the Yoshizen have a particular strength when it comes to genjutsu. In addition, some of the butterflies can be used as explosives, or their wings laden with poisons that can lead to anywhere between sleep and death."

In looking to her left, Hoshiko noticed that Ayame looked significantly put out, and she couldn't help but giggle. Hayato looked up and smiled as well. "Alright, last one. The Takenaka clan appeared towards the middle of Konohamaru-sama's time as hokage. It was a remarkable surprise to everyone outside of the clan. They did not come from another village, nor had there been any signs of their development. However, one day the revealed themselves – A tightly knit group of about 20 who shared the same secret technique. Because of their... secrecy," Hoshiko noted a slightly tone of disapproval in Hayato's voice, "we have been unable to determine whether or not it is in fact a kekkei genkai. However, they trace their family tree back to the great Godaime's attendant, Shizune. They have the ability to manipulate poisons. It appears to be some sort of elemental combination, but again..." There was that disapproval again. "...they haven't exactly been cooperative. However, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with; their powers are great, despite their small numbers. For whatever reason, their infant mortality rate is extraordinarily high, and due to their resistance, neither the hokage nor any of his staff have been able to do anything about it to help them."

Shrugging off his annoyance -clearly, the Takenaka were not a topic to be brought up too lightly, Hoshiko noted- Hayato smiled. There, done with the clans! If you keep up this pace, you might be able to get a half day, since the rest of the topics shouldn't take too long, and what we'll be doing tomorrow will take the whole day." Hoshiko grinned broadly at his praise; Ayame just looked hungry. "Anyway, we're going to be going through the basic hierarchy of the shinobi system for the rest of today, as well as some Leaf Village history to start off with. Now, how much do you know about the history of the Hokages?" One look at Hoshiko with her hand straining to reach higher told him she could probably teach this part of the class. Instead, he turned to Ayame, leaving Hoshiko disappointed. "Ayame, what can you tell me?"

The blue-haired girl was caught thoroughly off guard. "Umm..." she paused for a minute trying to remember anything. "Uhh... we have... eight... of them. On what looks like Mount Rushmore. Annnnd... Let's see... One of them had a monkey. A really awesome monkey. You know, I really liked that monkey-" Hoshiko not-so-subtly elbowed her. "Ouch! Oh. Right. Umm... And there was one with wood... Oh! And then there was Tsunade. She is sooooo awesome! I love Tsunade. Then Naruto, and Konohama-whatsit, like you said... and now the really hot one. OW!" She turned her head to see Hoshiko with a giant stress mark on her forehead, ready to hit her again. "SENSEI!" she cried, diving under the table. Hayato closed his eyes and shook his head, a sweat drop appearing on his forehead.

"DON'T – YOU – EVER – KNOW – WHEN – TO – SHUT – UP?!" Hoshiko yelled, punctuating each word with another smack on the head. Inhaling deeply, she held it for a few seconds before letting it out. Noticing her sensei's stare, she turned bright red and sat back down. "Woops. Gomennasai, sensei! I might... have gotten a... little carried away."

"YA THINK?!" Ayame called from under the table. Hayato didn't fail to notice the swift kick she received.

"Right then! I see we have some learning to do about our village leaders!" he said, giving a stretched but somewhat humorous smile, sweatdrop growing bigger. "Now, the Shodai Hokage, or the First, was Senjuu Hashirama. What you need to know about him was that he started the village; he also had the ability to control the wood element, Mokuton. After his death, his brother, Senjuu Tobirama took over as the Nidaime. He created the infrastructure of the Leaf Village and had great power of the element of water, Suiton, as I mentioned earlier." Hayato was looking off of his notes as he copied a little tree of the leaders onto the blackboard, each leader having his own box with a name in it, a few key bullets beneath it, and lines connecting to the others to show the relationships.

"The Sandaime was their pupil, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He held his title longer than any other leader and as Ayame so keenly mentioned, had the ability to summon Monkey King, Enma, a privilege which no shinobi alive today has. The Yondaime, Namikaze Minato was the student of one of Hiruzen's students, the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya. The Yondaime held the title of hokage for the shortest time, and saved Konoha from destruction by sacrificing himself and sealing the Kyuubi in his son. He was known as Konoha's 'Yellow Flash' because of his advanced space-bending jutsu.

"Another of the Legendary Sannin, also the granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage became the Godaime Hokage. Senjuu Tsunade was responsible for the reconstruction of Konoha after the Oto-nin's attack on Konoha during the Chuunin Exams. She also helped establish the tradition of each squad having a medic ninja with them to take care of any injuries that might occur and is known for her legendary strength.

"The Yondaime's student, Hatake Kakashi, taught his son, Uzumaki Naruto who would later become the Rokudaime. In addition to Kakashi, he also trained under the Sannin Jiraiya as his father did before the Great Toad Sage passed away. Naruto-sama was responsible for many of the good relations that we share with other countries today, as well as the oversight of aide many struggling countries and the invention of the Rasen-shuriken, which no other shinobi has been able to wield since his passing. The next hokage was a friend of his, Sarutobi Konohamaru who was the grandson of the Sandaime. Konohamaru-sama is credited with the expansion of the Konoha library, as well as many laws to protect the forest surrounding our village.

"Our current hokage, the Hachidaime is the student of the Shichidaime. Akikami Kaito became the Hokage at the youngest age yet and is known for his charismatic approaches to new challenges; his diplomacy is legendary, perhaps even better than the Rokudaime's. He comes from an esoteric family who keep their jutsu well protected. Few have seen the Hokage in combat, but he is said to use kingyo, or goldfish as summons. One of his nicknames is Kingyo no Kokuou, or the King of Goldfish. And, that'd be it for the hokages. Any questions?" Hayato paused for a moment. With no response, he continued.

"Alright, so with our history of the hokages in mind, we're going to move onto the organizational basis that the hokage and all other shinobi work upon. It's designed for swift and efficient communication, with the hokage, of course, at the top. Just beneath the Hokage are his Head Advisors, who, depending on the leader, have varying degrees of power. Under them are two of the main units of shinobi: The Routine Ops Unit and the Medical Unit. The Routine Ops unit is what most shinobi are in – That's where you'll be if you continue on this path; that's where I am as well as any other teachers you may have. The Medical unit, greatly strengthened as we mentioned by the Godaime, is a supportive unit with subdivisions for the hospital, research, and emergency care. Lastly, there are the ANBU Black Ops; they are under the direct supervision of the hokage and answer to no one else. They deal with only the most dangerous or important of missions, like protecting the hokage himself, as well as interrogations and assassinations. Only the best of the best can achieve this rank," he ended, drawing another tree chart for this topic.

Looking up at the clock, Hayato decided that they'd had enough. "Alright, why don't you two go for lunch? We only have another two topics afterwards, so you'll be able to go early, 'kay?"

"Hai, sensei!" Hoshiko managed to call out before being brutally dragged off by Ayame, repaying the favor from earlier with the incentive of food.

--

Hayato broke out laughing when they returned: It seemed to be a definite pattern – Hoshiko was the one who dragged Ayame _to_ class, and Ayame was the one who dragged Hoshiko _away._ Hoshiko blushed furiously at his laughter, while Ayame just plopped herself down, looking wholly satisfied now that her stomach was full.

"Mkay. Ready? If we can just blast through this, you guys can go early. Deal?"

"Hai!"

"Alright then. So, we're going to be talking about the system of shinobi rankings. You should have at least rudimentary knowledge about most of this. Anyway, we'll start out at the bottom with you, the Ninja Academy Students," he gave a knowing smile as Hoshiko wrinkled her nose, clearly not happy with her current position. "In order to graduate to the next rank, students must first pass the Ninja Academy Graduation Test. There's no limit to the number who can pass, so to narrow down the number, there's another test administered by your prospective jounin sensei, the Genin Certification Exam.

"Genin are able to rise to the rank of Chuunin through either the Chuunin Selection Exams or by appointment. The Selection exams are held twice a year, promoting cooperation between the ninja villages who compete. If a genin fails the exam but shows great potential, the leader of his or her village may promote them anyway.

"Jounin is one of the most respected ranks: Only highly experienced and capable ninja are promoted to this rank. They're chosen by appointment and are the leaders of genin squads. Genin squads typically have four members including the captain, which has been deemed the optimum number for power, speed, and secrecy. The shinobi in the ANBU are especially advanced jounin.

"The rank between chuunin and jounin is Tokubetsu jounin, more commonly known as tokujou. Tokujou are essentially jounin in a specific area. For instance, interrogators and trackers might be tokujou: They're good at their specialties, but not good enough all round. Tokubetsu jounin are typically assigned to jounin when they're needed in a team for a specific mission.

"The only rank higher than jounin is, of course, hokage. The hokage is the strongest ninja in the village. Succession is determined by appointment by the old hokage with the assistance of his advisors and village elders. In case the hokage dies before being able to appoint a successor, the village elders and jounin council will decide by a vote. So, do you guys have all of that? I won't ask you too many details. Just now how you advance from one rank to the other and the order of the ranks. Sound good?"

Hoshiko grinned, nodding brightly as she turned over a new page in her notes, and Ayame let it rest with a simple, "Mhm."

"Alright, last thing: Mission rankings. These basically match up with the shinobi rankings – just use common sense and you won't really even have to worry about memorization. The lowest mission rank is D. Genin are usually the only ones who do these missions. There's no direct damage or combat involved, and they vary immensely. They can involve anything from babysitting, helping to gather crops, or recovering pets. The payment is low on these, but they make up a good percentage of the village's income because there are so many of them.

"The next rank up is C. Chuunin typically get these, but genin occasionally are allowed to have them. These missions involve protective escorts, gathering intelligence, capturing wild animals, or clearing mines, and they typically only involved a chance of injury.

"B ranks are for tokujou and chuunin. These involve more dangerous protective escorts, gathering intelligence on foreign nations, and assassinations. Open combat is to be expect and injuries are relatively likely, but not to be expected.

"A rank missions are for jounin and tokujou. These involve national relations, important escorts, and suppressing the advance of other shinobi forces. These almost always have combat with a high risk of injury.

"The most dangerous missions are ranked as S. These are for jounin and ANBU only, as they are highly sensitive. These could involve the assassinations of important persons, the transport of classified documents, and generally affect the fate of nations. These are extremely dangerous and are worth high amounts of yen," Hayato finally finished.

It took a few extra minutes for Hoshiko and Ayame to finish copying down their notes; however, before they got too excited, he interjected, "I know I said that was the last topic, but... Sorry, pop quiz! I told you to know the villages for today, so just to make sure you studied..." he trailed off, feeling a bit guilty. They'd really been pretty good so far, but if they'd paid attention, it shouldn't be too hard. Erasing the flow charts from earlier, he began to write the questions up on the board. "Take out a blank sheet of paper, and just answer these. When you turn it in, you can go."

_1. Name the Five Great Shinobi Nations _

_2. Name the five villages the belong to each of the nations, matching them with their respective countries from #1. _

_2. Name five other shinobi villages._

_Extra Credit:_

_One extra point for each extra shinobi village named._

Hoshiko, although she'd been rather unhappy with the prospect of a quiz, finished quickly with a bonus village.

_1. Hi no Kuni_

_Mizu no Kuni_

_Kaze no Kuni_

_Tsuchi no Kuni_

_Errr... Rai no Kuni??_

_2. Konohagakure_

_Kirigakure_

_Sunagakure_

_Iwagakure_

_Kumogakure_

_3. Amegakure_

_Kusagakure  
Takigakure  
Hoshigakure  
Otogakure_

_Extra Credit:  
-Yukigakure_

Although she puzzled over Kumogakure's country, she kept on drawing a blank. Damn! Putting a lame guess, she turned it in, irritated over it. Ayame turned hers in minutes later, and Hayato waved them off. Once they were outside, they both spoke simultaneously:

"What country is Kumo in?"

"What's the name of the village in Mizu?"

They both burst out laughing. "You go first," Hoshiko nodded as they turned a corner towards their apartment.

"What's the name of the village in Mizu no Kuni?" Ayame repeated, making a face. "I couldn't remember."

"Oh, Kirigakure. Mist, 'member?"

"Oi! Duh. Urg... Anyway, what was your question?"

"Uh... Right. What country is Kumo in again?"

"Kaminari no Kuni. You blank?"

"Yeah. That was the only one I couldn't remember though," she replied as they trudged up the stairs. Their flat was on the fourth floor, which, although it afforded a nice view, was a pain to get to.

The rest of the night passed fairly well. It was Ayame's turn to make dinner, so Hoshiko turned on the radio and alternated between a news station and music while she made flashcards for the test on Thursday. In the end, they of course ended up eating ramen, but only after Hoshiko made her friend swear that they wouldn't have it _every_ night that she cooked. After Hoshiko cleaned up -for that was the deal; whoever didn't cook cleaned- they moved into the bedroom and sat on the carpet quizzing each other on the countries; Ayame, of course, griped the whole time about how they hadn't gotten to play with any 'shinies' yet. Hoshiko snorted and whacked her with a make-shift fan.


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

The next morning when the girls arrived at the classroom, they found that Hayato had taped a note to the door, telling them that class would be outside in the back practice yard today. Neither of them really knew where that was, but generally going down and towards the back they eventually found it. It was a wide open yard, the fence around the Academy marking the perimeter with a gate for a back entrance as well. There were several trees and practice dummies, presumably for taijutsu practice. The rising sun was just visible over the gate, giving the entire area a warm, golden glow – Peaceful. That, however, was not anything like Ayame was feeling.

"Hayato-sensei, if we're out here, that means we're going to be practicing hitting stuff, right?!" the blue haired girl cheered energetically. Hoshiko rubbed her temples and pinched her nose. She'd forgotten her Dr. Pepper.

Hayato smiled. "Well, it's more complicated than that, but in a basic sense... Yes."

"WOOHOO!" Ayame yell soon turned into a yelp as Hoshiko hit her on the head.

"OH SHUT UP! It's TOO DAMN EARLY TO BE YELLING."

Ayame hid behind Hayato, sulking for a minute before looking up at him and commenting, "She doesn't need any practice."

"Grrrr...."

Hoshiko growled walked towards her, but this time Hayato laughed and held them apart. "Alright, alright. Save the energy for training. I'm not going easy on you guys today!" he chastised lightly.

"Fiiiiine," Hoshiko agreed, settling with a glare at Ayame.

"Alright. So, today we're going to start going into jutsu-"

Ayame interrupted him with another cheer.

"-And if you're not quiet, I'm going to let Hoshiko have at you." Ayame shut up, and Hayato continued. "First of all, do you know how shinobi create jutsu?"

"Chakra!" Hoshiko piped up immediately.

"Good. The chakra network is called the Keirakukei. It's what the byakugan can see, which is why the Hyuuga's Juuken technique is so deadly. Now what is chakra made out of?" For this, Hoshiko had no answer, having forgotten the exact details. Without any answers, he answered his own question. "Chakra is made up of two kinds of energy: the physical energy of the body and psychic energy of the spirit. Both of these are equally important. Next, the chakra is channeled into a hand sign, and from there, the jutsu is created. Got that?"

With nods from the both of them, Hayato continued. "Good. Now, this being said, this is only the way to create one type of jutsu – Ninjutsu. There are three types of jutsu in total, including ninjutsu. Either of you know them?"

"Ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu," Hoshiko answered. Ah, the powers of a true narutard.

"Very good. So, ninjutsu are made using chakra and hand signs. Out of these three, ninjutsu are by far the most versatile – They can be used for attack, defense, or even escape.

"Genjutsu are also made using hand signs and chakra. Genjutsu is the art of illusion, and it is one of the most difficult techniques to master. We don't teach it here at the Academy because it's too complex an art to be included in the basics you're to learn here, but knowledge is of course required, as it's one of the three shinobi arts. The way to escape a genjutsu is to have someone else outside of the jutsu force chakra into you, or to realize it's a genjutsu and be able to release the technique, if it's a weak one. I'll show you how to do that later.

"Anyway, the last ninja art is what we'll be practicing today: Taijutsu. This is one of the most fundamentally important skills you'll learn. To do this, you'll have to spend a long time getting in shape. Tomorrow when you wake up, I guarantee you you'll be sore. Be sure and take warm showers when you get home to ease up the pain. Anyway, in fighting, you'll need to have strong bones. If your bones are brittle, then you'll be in a world of trouble. Here," Hayato lectured, pulling two bottles out of his pocket. "These are calcium supplements. Take two of these a day – Don't slack off, it'll be worse for you," he said sternly. "Now," he continued, producing two more objects from his pockets. "These are bandages. If you practiced without them, your hands would be raw and bleeding in no time. With these, you'll just have some practice. Wrap these around your hands to about your elbows. Hoshiko, since you have shorts on, you'll want to do your lower legs too." Hayato gave the two rolls of bandages to the girls, leaving them to busily start wrapping their appendages.

Ayame was clearly excited; she could easily fight through pain, although she did enjoy bitching. Hoshiko had a high pain tolerance, but it certainly made her nervous. She knew that the stretching wouldn't be too bad for her; doing dance back at home had made her flexible and strong in the legs. Ayame would probably be tighter but have better upper arm strength... Well, they'd both have to fight through it. Hands and legs wrapped up, Hoshiko proceeded to pull her hair up into a high ponytail. Today was going to be hard – But it would be the first step to becoming a shinobi.

The first thing that Hayato did was show them how to throw a punch. "Pull your arm back to your side like you're opening a drawer – Hand in a fist, the underside of your wrist showing. Now, you're going to _twist_ when you throw the punch so you get your entire body into it. Punches start in the feet, not in the arm or the shoulder. Now, when you throw the punch, your wrist is going to turn over and then make _contact_." The dummy bent and popped back up with the hit. "Now you guys try." For the next twenty or so minutes, he had them go at the dummies, solely punching, without a break, while alternating between left and right. When he at last let them pause for water, Hoshiko could already feel the bruises forming, and it hurt to uncurl her hands from their fisted position.

Next came round house kicks, front kicks, and side kicks. Her ankles hurt like hell from doing it improperly for the first ten minutes, and her knees felt like they were going to give out. The motions were also throwing her off balance, but Hayato said they'd work on balance later. Their friendly, cheerful teacher suddenly didn't seem quite so nice or playful; his serious expression and harsh critique were... well... harsh. The last thing that they learned before a late lunch was to duck kicks and punches. It certainly wasn't fool proof, but when it looked like a high kick or punch was coming at you, you squatted and used your position to potentially knock them off balance. A low kick comes your way and you jump, jump back, or back flip. He promised he'd teach them how to do a back flip later, and the two barely held back a groan.

At lunch, Hoshiko, usually the obsessively light eater, matched Ayame's appetite, bite for bite. Neither of them cared much where they ate; food was the important part. Upon unwrapping the bandages around her hands, Hoshiko found that her knuckles were already edging on towards purple; the bandages were clearly the only thing that had kept her skin from breaking.. She inhaled sharply as she flexed her hand. Ayame moaned in similar pursuits.

Lunch ended _far_ too soon for either of their preferences, and they headed back, legs aching.

"Still excited about hitting stuff?"

Ayame glared in response.

Hayato was fresh as ever, even after that morning's work out, and he pushed them right back into their workout. In continuing with their exercises before lunch, he next had them practicing somersaults – Much to Hoshiko's dismay. After she was approximately five, she'd lost the ability to somersault. Why, she had no idea, but it was simply a fact. This came as a surprise to both Ayame and Hayato; her blue haired friend, of course, found it hysterical. Hayato attempted to show Hoshiko how, but the brunette failed miserably and _painfully_. He finally gave her some reprieve as an ill disguised mask of defeat.

Moving on from dodging, he next taught them how to block, and again he stressed the importance of taking the supplements. Hoshiko may not have ever listened to her parents when they told her to do something, but that was then. Now she was learning to be a shinobi, and hell if she was going to argue with her teacher on an issue that could potentially land her some broken bones. After showing them to properly brace their arms when blocking a kick, catching the kick, and blocking punches, he proceeded to beat them to a bloody pulp, throwing as many kicks and punches at the two of them as they could take, and then giving them another dozen. Now she _knew_ that she was going to have bruises all over her entire body. Hayato took the two of them at once, randomly alternating attacks so they had to be constantly ready, and by the end of the exercises, Hoshiko was practically weeping from exhaustion.

The sun was already setting when he finally let them go, and half way home, Hoshiko had to stop on the side of the road and throw up into some bushes. Intensity might be her thing, but stamina was certainly _not_. Ayame had all spades in that one, she thought as she watched her lunch continue to come up.

Ayame stood by her side, holding her hair back and rubbing her back until she was sure that she was okay. The only time she ever left was once to run and get her some water, and Hoshiko was grateful. An idiot Ayame may be, but she was also the best friend anyone could ask for.


	12. Chapter Eleven

The next morning when Hoshiko woke up, she was almost crying she hurt so much. Ayame, who was more used to vigorous work outs, was in better shape, but not by much. However, the blue-haired girl allowed her friend to get the first shower. The water pressure hurt Hoshiko's bruises, and she winced. Shaving was out of the option. While she was in the shower, Hoshiko took the liberty of trying to do a few stretches, and although they hurt, the warm water helped. After scrubbing sufficiently, she hurried out, not wanted to use up all the hot water.

Ayame had already set out breakfast, some pop tarts for herself, cereal for Hoshiko, and reheated rice for the both of them. Hoshiko didn't want to start without her, so she went to get dressed, and pondered for a moment. Hayato was probably going to work them like hell again, so she dressed more appropriately, going for a grey cammy and lavender work out shorts, as well as wrapping her legs in the bandages that he'd given them. Suddenly remembering what he'd said about the vitamins, she pulled them out of her pocket from yesterday, setting the bottles on the counter before popping four out and putting them on their plates. Ayame was soon out of the bathroom in similar attire – a white tank and blue shorts. Taking a seat, she shoveled down breakfast and set to wrapping her arms and legs with the bandages, and in another few minutes they were ready to go.

On the walk to the Academy, the two quizzed each other about the countries and villages, having been too tired to study much the night before. Hoshiko felt relatively confident, and Ayame went with the flow; by the time they'd arrived, they were a few minutes late, but Hayato got to the door to the classroom at the same time that they did. This surprised Hoshiko- Hayato seemed to be a rather neat and punctual man, but as soon as they got into the classroom, he explained with gifts.

"Hey – Sorry, I'm running a bit behind. I stopped by the storage room to get some shoes for you; I noticed your others yesterday weren't exactly ideal for all of the exercise that we're going to be doing," he said, producing two pairs of shoes from the box he held at his side. "The sizes should be about right, but tell me if they're not; I just estimated."

They were the typical ninja footwear, although Ayame's were blue and Hoshiko's black; Hoshiko was pleased to find that hers fit well enough as she slipped them on, and Ayame seemed fairly happy with hers too. With no complaints, their teacher moved right along. "Well then, time for the test, no?" The two of them groaned and sat down, happiness quickly disappearing.

They were both done in about forty minutes, each satisfied that they'd done pretty well, but what Hayato said next didn't make them feel any better.

"Alright guys! Time to put those new shoes to the test. We're going for a run, and each time you have to stop is an extra half mile! And tomorrow, it'll be an extra mile, and so on and so forth. Time to get your endurance up!"

Hoshiko just about died on the spot.

The brunette managed to make it back alive with her breakfast still in her stomach, and she was much relieved to hear that the next hour or so would be spent taking notes. Ayame, who was in better shape, wasn't so excited, but didn't complain for Hoshiko's sake. The next few pages in their notebooks were filled with more detailed notes on kekkei genkai; hiden jutsu, also known as secret jutsu; kinjutsu, also known as forbidden; fuuinjutsu or sealing; and juinjutsu, curse seals. When they finished, Hayato sent them off for an early lunch, telling them to be back soon. The two were happy to oblige, not feeling as exhausted as yesterday.

Upon returning, they found the same note from yesterday morning on the door, and they headed down to the back training field much more quickly this time. Hayato was there, finishing up the last of his sandwich, and he stood up to meet them.

"Alright!" he started, brushing a few crumbs away from his mouth. "Yesterday, we mostly worked on taijutsu. If taijutsu is the base of being a shinobi, then ninjutsu is pretty much everything else, and that's what we're going to be working on today. Now who remembers how a jutsu is performed?"

Hoshiko's hand shot up, which she realized was silly since they were outside, but continued. "It's started with chakra, made of psychic and physical energy, which is channeled through a hand sign and released with a verbal command."

"Very good. Now, I'm going to show you the hand signs-"

"Wait! I already know them!" Hoshiko beamed; she was such a good little narutard. Forming them with surprising quickness and agility -she'd clearly had far too much practice- she said the names as she went, hands in a blur. Ayame, who had seen her do this before, was unphased. "Tora, u, tatsu, mi, uma, hitsuji, saru, tori, inu, i, ne, ushi!"

_Booooooom!_

There was a large explosion on the training field, a few feet away from a tree – The bark on the side was burnt, and the smoke cleared to reveal a large crater. Hoshiko blinked as she stared at the spot. "Was that... me...?"

She turned her head to look back at Hayato to find him glowering at her, positively furious. "Nande kuso?! What were you _thinking?!_ Did it not occur to you that it's a bad idea to shout out hand sign names while focusing enough chakra to kill a fucking _bear_?! You could have hurt someone!" Fuming, he ran his hands through his hair. "And how do you know them anyway?! Non-shinobi shouldn't have access to that sort of information!"

Hoshiko had backed away a few steps, an enormous sweatdrop forming on her forehead as Ayame laughed hysterically; as much as she wanted to smack her friend, she figured that now wasn't the time with sensei mad like this. "Well... I... I didn't _mean_ to put chakra in it! It was an accident! And I just... I saw them in a book at the library is all!" The latter part was a half-truth, but she figured that online encyclopedias and library books were close enough.

Hayato looked about ready to kill himself. "You didn't _mean_ to put chakra into it? Oh, kami-sama..." He rubbed his temples, clenching his teeth. "Well, I guess that means that we're going to have to work on that, aren't we?"

Ayame did not like the sinister note in his voice. It sounded like effort was involved.

"In any case, you are _not_ allowed to use jutsu without my permission until you've been specifically trained, so don't just go around _shouting_ those for godsake!" he finished up, clearly irritated as the veins bulged in his forehead.

Regaining a bit of his composure, he went back to what he was saying. "Well, apparently Hoshiko already knows how to use chakra, which would be the first step. What we're going to do to start out is learn how to cancel a genjutsu, one of the easiest skills to master. There are two ways: The one that we'll do first is the one you'd use if you were by yourself and were stuck in a genjutsu. It's called 'Kai,' and it is formed by making the hitsuji hand seal and releasing chakra into the surrounding area in hopes of bursting through the illusion. The tougher the illusion, the more chakra that will be necessary. So, let's try it – I'm going to cast a very light genjutsu on the both of you, and you'll have to try and escape. This will also sharpen your senses since you'll have to figure out whether or not you're still in an illusion – for now, I'll be putting minor changes. Alright," Hayato flew through some hand signs, too fast for even Hoshiko to make out. "Magen!: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu!"

For a moment, it seemed as though nothing had happened, but Hoshiko realized that it would be silly for the transition to be obvious – That would eliminate all stealth. Hayato winked at her with a crooked smile, and then – removing all doubt that the illusion had begun – promptly swirled into nothingness. First off, it would be best to find out -

"RRAAAAAAAGH!!" Startled, the brunette looked over to the noise. Ayame was standing, knees bent with her hands clasped firmly in the hitsuji position, growling with concentration and effort as she attempted to focus her chakra.

Well, attempt nothing – Her chakra was visible at this point, charging the air around her as it whipped in a circle at her feet. "ALRIGHT! HERE GOES!" she shouted, not to anyone in particular.

"KAI!"

_Fwoomp_.

The next thing that happened was quite the shock to the both of them. Instead of being released from the genjutsu, the chakra had gone to her legs and feet and shot the blue haired girl off the ground to what must have been fifteen to twenty feet in the air. Hoshiko winced in sympathy when Ayame hit the ground, flinching at the sound of impact.

"Hey, you okay?" Walking over, she offered a hand to her friend.

"Well FUCK! What did I do wrong anyway?" Ayame cried, severely irritated, as she grabbed Hoshiko's hand and pulled herself up.

"Well, even if it had somehow worked, we wouldn't know. We're going to have to find what he changed about-"

"You mean like how he made all the practice dummies disappear?"

Hoshiko sweatdropped. Well that was obvious... "Ah! Right! Yeah! I was just making sure you knew is all... Ya know..." she waved her hands in front of her as she attempted to cover up for her stupidity.

"Riiiiight. So, we try again?"

"Well... Ummm... Yeah. Yes. Of course," she stuttered, failing miserably. Well, time to get serious again. Moving a few feet back from Ayame, she quickly formed the hitsuji seal, and, hoping it would work on its own like it did before, shouted the release. "Kai!"

Turning her head, she saw that there were still no practice dummies – Only Ayame fuming, already frustrated again. Shit... Well, again.

This time, Hoshiko closed her eyes, and tried to figure out how to access her chakra. From the manga, she knew that the center of the network was somewhere in her stomach, so she looked inward with a calm that she hoped would help – After all, Ayame didn't seem to be doing so well with her "Well-I'll-make-it-work" attitude.

For a moment, Hoshiko thought she saw a flash of purple, and suddenly, it felt as though someone had flipped a switch on her spine, or snapped the last lego into place. She felt an entire new part of herself open up as the chakra pumped its way through new veins and places that she hadn't been aware of. She felt _alive_. Hoshiko's eyes snapped back open, and she everything seemed to have taken on a new type of detail sharpness – And her arms were... on _fire?_ No! That was chakra! Manifesting in her arms? But why was it purple? For a moment, she felt the connection waiver, energy tapering off. Damn! She had to concentrate! "Here we go!" she shouted, adrenaline rushing with the chakra as it flared again. "Kai!!"

For a moment, purple again engulfed her vision, followed by a momentary black, but then she was back in the training yard again – With the practice dummies. "Yes!" Hoshiko punch the air in victory. "I did it, I did i-" she stopped her sing-song voice and her face fell in despair. "Aww man... I'm still in one?" she said disappointedly, noticing the large circle of burnt ground around herself and Ayame, who was standing peculiarly silent and still.

"Nope. You're out of it alright."

Hoshiko looked up to find the owner of the voice – Hayato, sitting up in the tree with his eyebrows raised; now she was confused.

"Wait, what? But that can't be right, look at the ground! You said you would change something, and the ground looks changed to me!"

Hayato hopped down from the tree, landing cat-like on his feet. "You did that. You focused waaaay too much chakra, and you burnt the ground because you released so much." _Unbelievable. This simply can't be true. No genin should have that much chakra! What does the Hokage know? Is this why he asked me to push them so hard?_ His mind whirled with questions but he kept them to himself with a carefully neutral expression.

Hoshiko was a bit distrustful of Hayato but consoled herself with the notion that if she couldn't trust him, training would be impossible. However, a frown worked its way onto her face again as the silence grew longer. "What did you do to Ayame?" she asked accusingly.

"Same thing I did to you – Genjutsu. What you did was to break yourself out of it; it takes a bit more skill to cancel it completely. We'll have to wait for her to get out of it before moving on," he replied with a shrug. Hoshiko didn't like that at all: What good was helping yourself if you couldn't help your friends? With a sigh and a frown, she sat down to wait.

Sitting soon turned to leaning back, and leaning to laying down. She wished she had some music, but she didn't suppose that would be terribly shinobi-like... So, she settled for watching clouds. Very Shikamaru-esque, she snorted. She had almost dozed off by the time a loud noise startled her to her feet again, sounding like high-speed wind. A cloud of smoke exploded around Ayame's still apparently-lifeless figure, and the brunette fought the urge to run forward.

She was relieved when she heard a coughing sound as the smoke cleared – There was Ayame, laying on the ground looking as though she'd been beaten. Rushing over, Hoshiko slid into her place beside her. "My god, what were you doing? Go for some ice cream or something?" she joked, helping her friend sit back up.

"No," she replied sullenly. "I sat there and tried the entire time, and you didn't even give me any help before you popped out of there like the world was ending," she sulked, knowing exactly which buttons to push to make Hoshiko feel guilty.

"But I-"

Hayato cut the two of them off, not interested in how it would play out. "Well, that's a nice introduction to the second way to escape," he started, crossing his arms. "Genjutsu ensnare the senses, and the only way to get out of them is to disrupt your chakra flow. In Kai, what you did was to over power the genjutsu by greatly increasing your chakra flow and letting it destroy the rest of the illusion. Another way to do that would be pain if you have no hope of rescue. However, if someone else _is _there, you're in luck. By forcing chakra into the person that the genjutsu affects, you effectively reboot their senses, thus bringing them out of it. All it takes is chakra control and physical contact, understand?" They both nodded, although Ayame still looked a little fuzzy on the idea. "Alright, Hoshiko, you go first. I'll put Ayame under a genjutsu, and you break her out of it, 'kay?"

"Hai, sensei!" she replied, looking serious and ready to go.

"Alright then." Before Ayame could protest or even open her mouth, he recast it. "Magen! Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu!" Ayame's body went rigid, and Hayato turned to Hoshiko. "Now, remember, you're not trying to overwhelm her with your chakra, just to put in enough to snap her out of it. Getting out of my last genjutsu, you used too much." Waaaay too much. In fact, he was a bit cautious as to whether or not he should let her try, seeing as it could potentially harm Ayame if she applied that much chakra, but he decided on a hunch that she would be able to handle herself, especially since it dealt with her friend.

"Hai, sensei!" the brunette said again, furrowing her brows in concentration. For a moment, she just tried to force it out, tensing her muscles, but nothing happened. Sigh. What had she done before? Oh, right. Inward, look inward...

Closing her eyes, she tried to find the feeling again, and – _Click!_ Fwoom. As she opened her eyes, she once again found herself surrounded by flaming purple chakra. Shimatta! That much chakra might hurt her! He said it was too much... Taking another deep breath, she closed her eyes and slowly expelled it, trying to gain some sense of control. Upon opening her eyes again, she found that the chakra had been reduced to a thin layer up to the middle of her forearm. "Alright!" she cried, ecstatic at her success as she firmly clamped her palms down onto Ayame's shoulder. "Kai!" At the first signs of a return to consciousness, Hoshiko glomped her. "I DID IT!" she shouted before Ayame yelped and pushed her off.

"Gwah! Ya didn't have to yell it in my ear for petesake!" she grumbled, rubbing that side of her head. The two of them were so absorbed in yelling at each other that they didn't know Hayato quietly musing to himself off to the side.

They were unbelievable, the two of them. Although Ayame had taken a while to get out of the genjutsu, she'd used the same incredible chakra, although with abysmal control. Hoshiko, on the other hand, seemed to have fantastic control... Well, now for Ayame. "Alright, knock it off! Ayame, your turn. Magen! Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu!"

Hoshiko went rigid, and Ayame gave a maniacal laugh, producing a large sharpie from apparently nowhere. Just as she started to draw a mustache and a monocle on the brunette's face, a fist appeared out of no where, slamming onto her head and knocking her flat. For a second, Ayame was shocked – Had Hoshiko broken through the genjutsu herself? However, she still found her friend's body rigid and still. Tilting her head farther back, she caught sight of an irate Hayato hovering over her. Scrunching up her face, she whined,"Itaaaaai! You're just as mean as Hoshiko!" Sniffling, she got back onto her feet and stuck out her tongue, crossing her arms.

Inside the genjutsu, Hoshiko began to wander off, intending to see how far the illusion went – She had no misconceptions about how long this would take.

Ayame had recovered from Hayato's onslaught, and she began to focus very hard on her hands, willing all of her power into them as she screwed her eyes shut. Hayato sighed. A minute passed, and nothing had happened. This was clearly going to take a while.

Ayame felt a throbbing at her temples and her eyes flew open, hoping for results – However, she only found that she had acquired a headache. "You know, it might help if I had some food–" she prompted but Hayato dismissively waved his hand.

"No chance. Get back to work, and make sure to monitor how much chakra you put into it. You don't want to break her bones, do you?"

A concerned look fleeted across Ayame's face before she brushed it away. Whatever! She wouldn't hurt Hoshiko for the world. With a carefree smile, she went back to her efforts, leaving Hayato to daydream about getting a girlfriend. Minutes passed, and still she had made no progress, and he sighed, finally getting out of his hopeless thoughts – You work with kids, you have no time for a girlfriend. "Hey. Ayame. How's it goin'?"

"How does it look, dipshit?" the blue-haired girl growled, in a foul mood.

Hayato was a bit taken aback, not used to such a display of aggression. Hoshiko knew that she got particularly cranky whenever she got headaches, but said brunette was not there to inform him, so he quickly shook off the shock and gave her a frown. "Kami, cool your jets. Sorry for trying to give advice."

Ayame massaged her temples and sighed. "Gomen. What?"

"I was going to say that you look like you're trying too hard. You can't force chakra, any more than you can force your bones to move. What you need to do is feel out how to tell it to work. Your nerves tell your muscles and bones what to do, but if you just thought about forcing your leg to do, it wouldn't do anything, would it? You have to figure out how to call it up. Try relaxing for one," he pointed out, shrugging. "Think back to what Hoshiko, and how she looked before she broke out of the genjutsu."

Ayame sighed again. How had Hoshiko looked...? Actually, she'd looked really... Calm. Serious and concentrating, but calm. Shaking out some of the cramps in her muscles that had formed from tensing them for so long, she closed her eyes again and put her hands together in a prayer-like position, just standing still. At first when she tried to focus, she found herself tensing her muscles, but she quickly relaxed them again. Gradually, she began to hear the blood rushing through her ears, and the blood pumping into her hands – It was synchronized, so that the blood in her palms pumped against each other. Finally, after having stood like that for a minute, she exhaled and imagined the chakra rushing into her arms, like pouring water through her head into her arms.

Unbidden, her eyes opened, and Ayame found herself surrounded in turquoise flames – _Chakra_. With her entire body surrounded in the ethereal substance, the calm stayed with her, as well as the uncharacteristic seriousness. She was so concentrated on herself, she failed to notice Hayato's shocked expression.

What the hell was that?! With a tiny bit of advice that every academy student got, she had suddenly channeled enough chakra for a B-level technique, and she had the aura of a fighter about her. There was no way – But there she was.

Ayame struggled for a second to maintain her chakra as she began to move, but quickly got the hang of it, and she closed the few steps towards Hoshiko. Moving her hands up and slowly removing them from each other, she moved them towards the other girl's upper arm.

Things stopped going so smoothly as soon as she made contact. A large shot of the chakra suddenly burst onto Hoshiko's arm as the rest simply evaporated into nothingness. With the burst, however, Hoshiko went flying back, smashing herself into a tree just as she regained consciousness of her body.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?!" Hoshiko was on her feet in a second, the entire right side of her body throbbing with bruises forming right down to the very bone. It was a miracle she hadn't broken anything!

"Hey! I got you out, didn't I!?" Ayame cried, very defensive as she crossed her arms. _She_ thought she'd done a pretty good job.

"Both of you, shut up," Hayato intervened, not wanting to deal with it. So much for a serious Ayame. "In any case, for the rest of the time, we're going to work on hand signs and calling up chakra. Since you already knows the hand signs, why don't you teach Ayame?" he nodded towards Hoshiko.

"Oh! Sure!" she nodded brightly before turning towards Ayame, cat fight completely forgotten. Dragging her off towards the tree that she'd been slammed into, the two sat down on the roots as Hoshiko jumped right into showing her, the other girl paying a surprising amount of attention.

Hayato sighed... They were something, alright. Going back inside for a moment, he got some writing supplies and returned. Sitting down, he began to write his report to the hokage on their progress.

Author's Mini-Glossary:

Tora, u, tatsu, mi, uma, hitsuji, saru, tori, inu, i, ne, ushi - Tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, bird, dog, boar, rat, ox; respectively.

Nande kuso – Translates roughly to 'what the hell.'

Magen: Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu – Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique

Gomen - Sorry

Itai – Ow! Lit., 'it hurts'


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

The next week passed quickly with more endurance training, as well as taijutsu practice and chakra control. Their respective strengths and weakness were becoming very clear: While Ayame's chakra control was abysmal, her physical fitness was far superior to Hoshiko's. Hoshiko, on the other hand, had magnificent control but very poor endurance.

It had become habit to go up to the classroom to meet Hayato for a run first thing in the morning, so the girls were thoroughly surprised when, after an entire week, they found the room dark and a note posted telling them to go to the 22nd Training Zone. For a moment, Hoshiko froze – Was that the Forest of Death? However, it was just a fleeting thought; almost immediately, she recalled that the forest was the 44th, not the 22nd. Next to the note, a small packet was attached with a post-it labeled 'For Hoshiko.' In pulling it off the door, the brunette laughed – it was a map. Clearly, Hayato had it straight who to give it to.

The two set off together, and it took about ten minutes to walk to the training zone with only one wrong turn. Hayato was waiting for them there in a large field, bordered on either side by the thick tree line as well as two rows of practice dummies. Without waiting for them to catch up, their teacher ducked into the woods, and in following him, they found themselves on a small foot path. Tucking the map into her backpack, Hoshiko stood on her guard, wondering if this were a test of some sort.

Just ahead, they could see a clearing, and here Hoshiko's watchfulness came in handy. As soon as they'd entered, the brunette heard a slight whistling and turned her head just in time to block Hayato's incoming, airborne kick. Landing deftly, he swung at her again, which she caught with her other hand. Hoshiko took her opportunity and swung a kick at Hayato's exposed side, which he blocked, nearly throwing her off balance. At this point, however, Ayame saved her from further difficulties by sliding in between her legs to try and knock Hayato off balance with a one-footed slide-tackle. Hayato disappeared in a burst of smoke, and a log appeared in his place.

"Dammit, that's _cheating_, okay?!" Ayame shouted without direction, getting back up on her feet.

Hayato's voice startled them, and they turned to see him sitting on a large rock across the clearing. "Would it be cheating if you could do it?"

"Duh! Of course not!"Ayame said, flipping her hair in a characteristic failed gesture to get some of it out of her eyes.

"Great! That's a good introduction into the next step of your training. Starting today, we're going to be learning ninjutsu."

"OH EHM ZEE! I GET TO BLOW STUFF UP!" shouted Ayame.

"WHAT?! REALLY?! YES! YES YES YES YES YES!" Hoshiko shouted simultaneously before grabbing up her friend and dancing around.

Hayato sweatdropped. Oh my... "Umm... Guys? You okay over there?" he asked tentatively, not really sure what else to do or say.

"Hai, sensei! Sorry for my disruptiveness!" Hoshiko immediately snapped back into her serious mood; this time, it was a bit over the top though, almost reaching Rock Lee levels of annoying. Ayame smacked her, and the brunette went back to normal, very serious but very excited.

Hayato sweatdropped again. "O...kay then. So, before we start learning actual ninjutsu, you're going to need to figure out how to mold your chakra. As of now, you can activate your chakra, but now we're going to learn about forming it. I want you to start by focusing it in your hands."

Thus, the next forty-five minutes were spent with Hayato calling out a random place on the body and the girls having to focus their chakra there. It turned out that using chakra was actually rather exhausting, but he showed no signs of giving them a break. After he felt satisfied that they had a rudimentary hang of it, he produced two kunai.

"As tempted as I was to give at least Ayame a sharpie instead of a kunai, I tried and found that marking the trees with sharpie was hard. These are two freshly sharpened kunai, so be careful with them. What you're going to do is you're going to focus your chakra in your feet and run up a tree. When you lose your concentration, your chakra will disperse, and you'll fall; in order to keep track of how high you get, you mark the tree with the kunai before you fall. This is one of the most important skills as a ninja, and although your feet are the hardest places to concentrate chakra, this is an essential skill. After mastering this, we'll move on to using the chakra to help with running, and then running on tree limbs. I don't care how long this takes, we're not going to be doing anything else until you two master it."

Hoshiko nodded seriously; Ayame was too busy play with the kunai to notice too much until her friend elbowed her sharply. "Oh... um... right. Yeah. Exactly." She nodded, clearly having tuned out after having heard the bare essentials. Pointy.

Hoshiko went into the exercise fairly confidently, thinking that she had a good grasp on her chakra. It took her seconds to call up her chakra and focus it in her feet, her entire foot up to a bit above the ankle glowing. With a few steps and a bit of a jump, she landed on the tree and started running. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned – The chakra she put in was far too much and too wild, and she only made it a few steps before feeling the energy in her feet evaporate because of the huge indentations it was making in the wood. She barely managed to mark her spot, hardly even her height, before falling flat on her back.

"Ow... Shit, that hurt," she grumbled, getting back up on her feet and rubbing the back of her head and spine. Looking to her left, she saw Ayame having further troubles with too much pressure. So, that approach clearly wasn't going to work. If she couldn't simply put it in her feet, she'd have to specify exactly where on her feet she wanted it with a _lot_ less force. In other words, if she couldn't go from a lot to a little, she'd have to start small and stay small.

Closing her eyes, she felt out her center and her chakra network, taking a moment to get in tune with it before directing it towards the balls and heels of her feet. This was far easier thought than done, however – It was like trying to keep a bubble from floating to the top of water; the chakra simply did not want to stay there and kept rising back into her legs. When she got frustrated and tried to force it to stay there, she again dented the ground beneath her.

Sighing in frustration, she looked inside herself again and followed the chakra network into her feet, finding the points where the network was at its strongest. Noting these points, she made the hitsuji hand seal to focus her chakra and concentrated on those points, working on just holding the chakra there. After a few minutes of this, she gradually began to try and expand the chakra so that it covered more of her foot. This was much more difficult, taking longer. Hayato was actually starting to get suspicious about what she was doing, just standing there; Ayame had already got about ten feet up, although her progress was at a dead end.

When Hoshiko felt like she finally had enough chakra in her feet, she dashed towards the tree and took one, two steps- Before falling down again. That was shorter than last time! She gave an unhappy frown and repeated the process from before. This time, however, she concentrated harder and held it for longer, trying to focus on how it felt to maintain so that she could hopefully mimic that action. This time when she tried, she made it fifteen or so feet up into the tree in one go. Ayame stared at her, rather amazed.

Quickly marking her spot as she began to fall, Hoshiko flipped backwards, this time landing in a cat like position on her feet and one hand, although the impact jolted her bones. Next time, she would have to try and use chakra to cushion it, she thought; it was good practice as well as practical.

Hayato watched the two of them carefully, and although having been suspicious of Hoshiko's behavior at first, he was shocked at her exponential progress. Having failed miserably the first few times, she'd suddenly gotten the hang of it, and at this point she was more than half way up the tree. Ayame, however, who had started off with more progress than she had, was stuck very low.

After another half hour had passed, Hoshiko had made it to the top of the tree, and she sat on one of the branches beaming. She felt very much like what she guessed Sakura had when she'd achieved it as well, but luckily Hoshiko was not a rabid fan girl with pink hair. She considered herself a fair bit higher than that, or hoped so at least.

Hayato raised his eyebrows and stood up, uncrossing his arms to give her a light round of applause. "I must admit, I'm impressed, Hoshiko. Way to go," he congratulated her, walking to the base of the tree to look up.

Hoshiko grinned widely in response and jumped down, using her chakra to break the fall. "Arigatou, sensei!" Turning aside, she allowed Hayato to begin helping Ayame.

Ayame was having a very hard time of it, not able to control how much chakra she put into her steps. Although she could channel her chakra, she couldn't control how much or when it stopped, both vital details. With his help, Ayame managed to progress another ten feet up the tree, but the process went virtually stagnant again, progressing very slowly.

Hoshiko, meanwhile, had nothing to do besides look for shapes in the leaves. Hayato was not happy with this, however, and caught her off guard with a sharp kick in her unprotected side. This knocked Hoshiko off her resting place on a rock and winded her thoroughly, the force making her want to throw up.

As soon as she had recovered from the blow, she was up on her feet, screaming and cursing at him. "What the FUCK was that for?! An inch higher and you could have broken a rib! As it is you've pretty much flattened my internal organs! What the HELL!" she shouted, even drawing Ayame's attention span who redirected her fall to catch herself on a branch to watch the fight.

Hayato shrugged. "A ninja never lets his guard down."

"I'll teach you never to let your guard down!" Hoshiko roared, lunging at him suddenly, fist balled tightly. In her anger, she had unintentionally built up chakra in her hand, and as he caught the punch, he was forced back a step not having expected the extra strength. Hoshiko, not letting the opportunity pass, swung her left leg and caught him with a hard kick to the side.

Hayato fell to the side, sending Hoshiko with him because of his grip on her hand. Hoshiko recovered, flipping backwards and skidding backwards, still growling; it was the first time she'd lost her temper with him. Hayato coughed a bit – That had been a hard kick. With a haphazard grin, he propped himself up on an elbow. "Not bad." Glancing up to see Ayame still watching, he scolded her before turning back to Hoshiko. "Get back to work! This isn't a circus. Anyway, that was pretty good actually. You channeled some chakra into your punch, which is a good skill to have. You're showing some potential with chakra control, so until Ayame finishes up, we're going to be sparring."

Hoshiko, having regained some of her calm and reason, groaned. What? That hadn't exactly been the intended effect. She'd gotten him back, kick for kick, and that was supposed to be the end of it – She wasn't expecting another beating all in the name of a training exercise.

"Aww, come on! It's not like I'm trying to kill you. I'll be on the defensive first, alright?" he chided her slightly, although his words' impact was lessened slightly by the fact that Ayame fell down the tree with another decisive _thud_. He was too trying to kill them. Hoshiko sighed, but showed her agreement as she walked away from the tree where Ayame was practicing and got in a fighting stance. Well, if he was a sadist, she was a masochist. She smirked. There was no doubt about that.

It took almost two hours for Ayame to reach the top of the tree, and by that time Hoshiko was exhausted from her continuous efforts at breaching Hayato's near impenetrable defense. When Ayame finally got down, however, she found Hoshiko with a bit more energy than expected as Hoshiko gave her a flying kick into a tree.

"WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG?! WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME, LEAVING ME WITH THAT HARD CORE OVER THERE?!"

Just as Ayame was starting to get up again, Hayato intervened. "Now girls, let's keep it civil, _shall we?_" he said menacingly, gripping particularly hard on Hoshiko's shoulder. "In any case, it's about time for a late lunch. Take these with your food," he said, handing them two walnut sized balls, one for each of them. "I don't care how bad they taste, you'll eat them if you don't want to die from too little chakra."

Hoshiko paled for a moment at the sight of them. _Please, please, please let these have improved since Sakura made them..._ She quickly shrugged it off however; she could always have Ayame taste test.

Lunch was uneventful, the two teasing each other and commenting about how hot this guy or another was, and although they found that they chakra pills didn't taste bad, they had a horrible texture, like mushrooms – and boy did Hoshiko hate mushrooms. However, she dealt with it, and the two were back at training zone 22, feeling significantly rejuvenated with the help of the pills.

When they arrived, Hayato was waiting for them, sitting on the rock he'd kicked Hoshiko off of earlier. "So, are the chakra pills working?" he asked, taking out several lengths of rope from a bag behind him.

Hoshiko was immediately wary. "I swear, if you try and assassinate me _one more time_–" she threatened, giving a death glare.

"Relax, relax. It's just your next training exercise. I'm not going to tie you up," he cut her off, raising his hands. "Anyway, did they?"

"Fine, fine. But yes, yes they did," Hoshiko conceded, Ayame nodding as well.

"Good. Anyway, your last exercise's formal name is Kinobori no Waza, or the Act of Tree Climbing. What we're going to work on now is Nawanuke no Jutsu, or Rope Escape Technique. If you ever get captured and you're tied up, you can use this to undo the ropes without your hands. All it requires is physical contact with the rope or binding material. Here," he said, tying a basic knot in the rope, "watch me."

Hayato gripped the opposite end of the rope, probably a little under four feet in length, and in less than a second, the tip he was holding started to glow a blue. "Right now, I'm putting more chakra than I need to into this so you can see what I'm doing. Ordinarily, the chakra you'd be using would be small and fine enough to be invisible to the naked eye. Now watch; I'm going to send it along the rope and use it to untie the knot." As he spoke, the blue had already begun to move along the line, and as soon as he finished talking, it quickly spread the rest of the way. "Now what you do here is pretend like the knot is a part of your own body. If you're sitting cross-legged, you have to move one leg before you do the other, and that's how you stand up. If you do it in slow motion, it's just like this. Just think of how you would get out of this knot." Slowly, one end began to slide itself out from underneath another, and soon the rope fell limp – unknotted. "Now you try." Hayato handed them each a length of rope after doing a basic knot, leaving them to it.

Ayame wasted no time in jumping into the exercise, immediately shooting chakra into her hands and attempting to force it through the rope; the only result she got, however, was a small explosion at the end of the rope, making it frayed and leaving it slightly smoking. Hoshiko barely withheld a laugh at the look on Ayame's face, but returned her concentration to her own work. Although it seemed like the chakra would flow more naturally through the threads of the rope, she would have a stronger grip on it if she sent a thicker string of chakra through the center.

As the two of them began to work and get into it, Hayato opened a pouch and pulled out a scroll, jotting down 'lesson plans' at the top before outlining the next few months, putting them just about into April.

_Taijutsu_

_-Handling weapons_

_-Variety of basic kicks_

_-Blind spots_

_Lecture_

_-more history_

_-mission protocols_

_-jutsu specifics_

_-rarer hand signs_

_Jutsu_

_-more genjutsu practice_

_-Kawarimi no Jutsu [Body Replacement technique]_

_-Suimen Hokou no Waza [Act of Water Surface Walking]_

_-Henge no Jutsu [Transformation technique]_

_-Kakuremino no Jutsu [Cloak of Invisibility]*_

_-Bunshin jutsus, some Kage Bunshin [Clone techniques, some shadow clone]_

Hayato looked up again at Hoshiko's exclamation to see her waving the unknotted rope triumphantly as Ayame stuck her tongue out at her friend, not having succeeded as quickly. Taking on these kids hadn't been such a bad idea after all, he thought as a smile warmed his face.

A/N *Kakuremino no Jutsu is a jutsu that isn't too terribly well known. Although it's used only once in the series when Konohamaru was trying to blend into a wooden fence (and failing), it's listed in one of my data books as a jutsu that all Academy students learn. The general gist is to be able to take a cloth, or yourself, and blend in with the surrounding area. In other words, it's a SNEAKY NINJA BASTARD JUTSU! D /is done channeling Ayame


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

The months passed quickly, blurring into one another as they became more and more muscular and agile. The two improved rapidly at taijutsu and ninjutsu as well, learning the basic academy techniques, and Hayato found the two to have enormous amounts of chakra. Ayame had vast amounts, but it was ill controlled and difficult for her to manage. Hoshiko, on the other hand, had excellent control and had enormous amounts as well, but couldn't seem to access it beyond a certain point without becoming completely exhausted. The Hokage didn't seem surprised at all with their rapid developments, and Hayato enjoyed having them as students.

April rolled around before anyone knew it, and everyone had settled into a daily schedule, although Ayame showed no signs of lowering her consumption levels of ramen, leaving Hoshiko's hopes of it being a phase dashed. The two had also gotten a new alarm clock, this one featuring the Badtz-Maru theme song to wake them up, which, in both of their opinions, was a far better way to start the morning.

It was this very theme that started another day mid-month, beginning another usual morning routine. Ayame got the shower first while Hoshiko made breakfast; Hoshiko took a shower while Ayame got dressed; Hoshiko got dressed as Ayame packed their bags; finally, the two sat down to breakfast together. This particular morning was nothing out of the ordinary as the two sat down across the table from each other, chatting about which was harder, Konoha Repuu or Senpuu*.

"Gah. Anyway, whatever. Hayato hasn't taught us anything new for ages though," Ayame shrugged, talking in between bites of cereal.

"Talk about it. It's been boring as hell lately, just review," Hoshiko agreed, scooping up the last bit of her yogurt before getting both of their bowls and putting them in the dish washer. Taking a last sip of her Dr. Pepper, she threw it in the recycling. "In any case, it's about time we got going though."

Ayame followed suit with her coffee, and the two were out the door a few moments later, jumping off the railing to leap from roof to roof towards the Academy. It nearly halved the time they got there in, and by now it was just second nature. It was a cloudy day, the sky remaining dark despite the hour, the roofs only slightly damp from the last night's rain but the sky promising more. Much to their surprise, when they arrived at the door to the classroom, they found the lights on inside, instead of the usual note telling them which training zone to go to, the luminescence welcoming on the grey background of the windows.

With a short knock, Hoshiko entered, giving a short wave and a smile to Hayato. "Hey!" she said, swinging her backpack onto the desk. She received a friendly nod back as he waited for the two of them to get seated before he began. What he said was simple and short, but left the both of them shocked for a moment.

"Today you're taking the Academy graduation exams."

Hoshiko recovered her composure first. "What?! Just like that? No warning or anything?!" she exclaimed, bewildered and on the verge of severe irritation.

Hayato raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "A ninja should be prepared for anything."

Next to her, Ayame grumbled something about 'not being fucking boy scouts.'

Hoshiko shut her eyes and gritted her teeth. Today? For a moment, she felt panic rising before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. It would be okay. If Hayato was giving them the test, it meant he thought they were ready. He'd never thrown anything at them that they couldn't do or weren't ready for before, and it wasn't likely he'd start now. After another moment, she opened her eyes and rested her chin on interlaced fingers. Her gaze had suddenly grown intense and her posture more serious. "So then, what is it?"

"Simple. Create two shadow clones; have one do a transformation, the other do Rope Escape technique, and the original do Cloak of Invisibility," he said with another shrug.

Again, Hoshiko blanched, but this time it was Ayame who spoke up, or rather down as she banged her head on the desk. "Please tell me you're kidding." Hoshiko was dying to agree; Naruto's graduation test had been no where near this hard!

"Nope. I'm perfectly serious. So, which one of you wants to go first?"

Hoshiko was struggling to collect herself; it wouldn't do to be frenzied. If she were to succeed, she would have to be calm. After another moment, she felt confident enough to raise her hand. "I will."

Hayato took her to a room next door, this one empty but for a chair. God, it was nerve wracking to just have him staring at her – but she had to stay calm. She could do this. She, Tsukino Hoshiko, could do Rope Escape, Kage Bunshin, Transformation, and Cloak of Invisibility techniques. The clones would have their own minds, so it wasn't like she would have to do all of them in one head at once. She would be okay. Admittedly she'd never done this many jutsu at once before, but she would have to deal with it. She trusted Hayato.

"So, once more, create two shadow clones, have one do a transformation into Ayame, have the other one do rope escape, and you will do Cloak of Invisibility. Any time you're ready," Hayato restated, ready with a pencil and a clipboard.

So nerve-wracking... But she could do it. She knew she could. All she had to do was take it one step at a time. First, Kage Bunshin... Dammit, Ayame was so much better than her at this; the only way she had actually ever even managed to get it was when Hayato pointed out that if Ayame could do it and she couldn't, then there'd be more Ayame's than she could handle, and god knows what would happen then. But damn it! She had to focus. Exhale, Hand sign... "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" There was a poof of smoke, and two identical figures stood on either side of her, each with the same serious expression on their faces. Step one, good. Now, clone number one had to do rope escape...

Sensing her need, Hayato tossed her clone some rope, then the original a blanket. In looking at the piece of rope that her clone was holding, however, Hoshiko began to have doubts again. That was a more complicated knot than anything she'd ever tried before! However, that wasn't the only thing she had to worry about. Turning to her other clone, she tried to conjure up every detail of Ayame she knew. She could do much worse in terms of difficult transformations. As clone number two started the hand seals necessary, Hoshiko began her part. Channeling her chakra through the blanket, in a swift movement, Hoshiko crouched as she started the jutsu.

"Nawanuke no Jutsu!"

"Henge!"

"Kakuremino no Jutsu!"

Hoshiko's breathing was ragged under the blanket, and she suddenly felt stifled as she waited for some word from Hayato, unable to see if her clones had succeeded. Hayato smiled. Before him stood a picture perfect version of Ayame, Hoshiko with an untied rope, and only the faintest of outlines of her concealed figure against the wall.

"Congratulations. You pass."

The clones suddenly disappeared in clouds of smoke, and the real Hoshiko whisked off the blanket before tackling Hayato out of his chair. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so so so so so much! I'm so happy I could kiss–"

At that moment, Ayame walked in to see Hoshiko on top of Hayato. "WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING SO L– Eh? That's funny, I always thought you were on bottom, Hoshiko. Anyway, if it's that type of test, then I guess you've got it in the bag. Well, I'll leave you to it then!"

With every word she spoke, the two of them got redder and redder, especially Hoshiko. As embarrassed as she was, it quickly turned to anger, and just as Ayame was turning to leave, Hoshiko was on her feet and ready to kill her. "WHY YOU–!"

Hayato intervened with a substitution jutsu just as Hoshiko was about to throttle her friend to death. "Can you guys... please... finish this later? Please?" he pleaded, one eye madly twitching.

"But she started–"

"But she just tried to–"

"Oh just shut up."

"Hai, sensei," the two both replied with a sigh.

"Anyway, it's your turn to take the exam, Ayame. Hoshiko, why don't you wait outside?" Hayato said, bringing the subject back around to the primary topic of concern.

Clearly, Ayame had others. "But I'm not on the pill!"

This time, both Hayato and Hoshiko lunged for her.

A few minutes later, everything was back in relative order, Hoshiko waiting outside, Hayato having regained his composure, and Ayame with a black eye and a few other new bruises.

By this point, the nerves were finally starting to set in for the usually care-free Ayame. "Again, the test is to create two shadow clones, have one do a rope escape, the other do a transformation into Hoshiko, and you do a Cloak of Invisibility," Hayato repeated, his serious look not helping her mood. Plus, even Hoshiko had looked a little of kilter at hearing that list of requirements...

But she was Ayame, Hoshiko's lovable, knuckle-headed best friend! And Hoshiko had already graduated, so if she didn't pass, then who would be around to be the annoying, perverted partner in crime? With that, Ayame shrugged off the seriousness that had been plaguing her and got ready to roll.

The first step was easy; she was even better than Hoshiko at clone jutsu! "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Ayame remembered the first time that Hayato had introduced the topic to them – he had told them that he'd thought that it might be better to just teach it to Hoshiko, since one Ayame was more than enough. In a swirl of smoke, two clones appeared.

Next, there was rope escape. Hayato tossed a knotted rope to the first clone, and a blanket to the original. Rope escape… Hoshiko had helped her with that. Admittedly, it had been inhumane but effective. Hoshiko had made an entire pot of ramen, sat it in front of her, and before she'd been able to even grab for it, Hoshiko had Ayame's hands tied, and soon collared her neck to the chair upon finding that eating without hands was quite possible for her blue-haired friend. Ayame, of course, had figured out the technique in record time.

_Imagine the ramen…_ she thought, almost able to smell it. However, a thought struck her; she wasn't actually going to _get_ the ramen. Telling herself she would get it and not getting it was worse than not having it at all! This, naturally, was a conundrum. With Ayame's ingenuity when it came to food, however, it was quickly solved: If she passed the test, then she'd just make Hayato take her out for ramen! Case closed. And with that, she set to imagining the ramen; the knot fell undone before she'd even imagined the kamaboko.**

Now, for the transformation. Hoshiko was the second easiest person Ayame could transform into. The easiest was the librarian, which she used to sneak into the "adult literature" section. But Hoshiko… The smell of the shampoo she used… the panda hat… the collection of Strawberry Panic porn she kept stashed under her mattress... the way she smacked her… Poof! A carbon copy of the brunette stood next to her.

Lastly, for the Cloak of Invisibility, a technique which she had thoroughly mastered. With a final flourish and a wink, Ayame disappeared beneath the blanket. The pattern of the cloth was off for a moment before being rendered completely invisible, without even the outline that Hoshiko had had. Hayato began to clap slowly, eyebrows raised, and Hoshiko popped her head in the door. A pair of blue-green eyes became apparent a few feet off of the floor, and a disembodied voice floated after it. "Soooooo?"

Hayato broke out into a grin. "You both passed." Hoshiko shrieked with delight, tackling the eyes as the clones disappeared. Hayato produced two Konoha headbands and handed one to each, invisibility long discarded.

Hoshiko was silent for a moment, staring in awe at the leaf symbol emblazoned on the metal, before Ayame returned the favor and tackled her to the floor, shouting in her ear, "WE'RE NINJAS!" For a moment they just stared at each other before collapsing with laughter and rolling around on the floor in a hug. Hayato looked on, beaming, before he too was suddenly knocked to the floor.

"RAMEN!" his little blue-haired pupil shouted, and Hayato responded accordingly, a veteran to this sort of attack.

"Alright, alright. You earned it," he agreed, dusting himself off as he got up. As the trio walked out the door however, he turned to the two before he shut off the lights. "But by the way, what was that pattern you had on your cloak of invisibility at first? Goldfish or something?"

Ayame sweat dropped as Hoshiko sent her an ice-cold stare. "_That,_" the brunette said matter-of-factly, "is the pattern on the Hokage's bedroom curtains."

*Both are taijutsu moves

**A type of ramen topping, made of white fish, often found with cheese.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Hayato's parting words to them yesterday had been, "You're supposed to meet your new sensei in room 13B tomorrow at nine. Good luck." However, it wasn't until they were home that it had finally hit Hoshiko: They still had to pass another test! How had she forgotten about the Genin Certification Exam?! Sure, she'd passed the Ninja Academy Graduation Test, but there was still one more! When she'd broken the news to Ayame, she'd just shrugged and laughed.

"So? We passed the first one! What's the big deal?" Hoshiko had just groaned some more. If the degree of difficulty between Naruto's Graduation Test and Certification Exam was the same for them, they were screwed! The Graduation Test had been hard enough, but really? Shit. One thing was for sure though: Naruto may not have eaten, but she'd learned from that lesson! A good breakfast it was.

The two of them arrived at 13B at a few minutes until nine. Hoshiko was dressed in a black, belly-shower top with a chibi skull on it underneath a turquoise hoodie with the Tenorikuma on the back of it and Sanrio printed in large white letters across the front; on her bottom half were short-shorts of a teal color and black nin-shoes. In terms of accessories, she had a necklace with a star on it and black and white striped fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows.

Ayame wore a sky-blue, spaghetti-strap tank top with a snowflake in between her breasts underneath a black hoodie, featuring "We fear that which we cannot see" in silver-blue on the left arm and an eye on the inside wrist of the right. It was finished off by a small snowflake on the front of the hood the same color as the writing. For her bottom half, she wore baggy, dark blue cargo pants with a hint of teal, complete with lots of pockets and rings to hang things from as well as a few chains around the waist. For accessories, she wore black leather fingerless gloves with studs on the wrist as well as openings on the knuckles and backs, blue nin-shoes completing the outfit.*

After waiting ten minutes, Hoshiko had gotten thoroughly bored, which was not helped by how stuffy the room was. Moving to a window, she pushed it upon and let the breeze cool her bare midriff; the weather was unseasonably warm for November, but there was little anyone could do about it besides dress lighter. "You know, maybe she got called suddenly on some top secret mission!" Ayame blurted out suddenly, getting very excited with the idea.

"Oh shush, that's not likely at all. But really, where the hell is she? Please don't give us another Kakashi..."

"But I thought you liked Kakashi!"

"Well, I do, but being late all the time isn't really something I admire in a teacher. Five minutes is fine, but it's been fifteen now!" They lapsed into silence again.

"You're not too bright, are you? Leaving your back to a window unguarded? My, my. They certainly have lowered their standards at the Academy, haven't they?" The voice made Hoshiko jump up as she fought not to hyperventilate; it was a whisper in her ear, but loud enough for Ayame to hear as well, judging by her widened eyes.

Their sensei had already entered the room, skillfully slipping in through the window and taking her place at the front of the room with her back against the chalk board and her eyes half closed, arms crossed. It would almost appear as if she were dozing off, but the slight reflection of the light off of her eyes alerted Hoshiko to the fact that they were moving, inspecting and absorbing every detail of her new team. She was dressed in all black – standard issue ninja pants, a sleeveless shirt with a high collar, headband tied around her waist, and black nin-shoes. Her eyes were a dark blue, and her black hair was spun up into a spiky bun, much like Anko's, with a large shock of bangs on the right side of her face. On either hip there were sheaths from two to three feet long, and she wore arm guards from her elbow to her palm; over all, she made quite the intimidating picture.

Hoshiko's first instinct was to speak up and apologize, but she could see how that would turn out already; it would just make her look weak, and she'd already disappointed her teacher enough for one day.

Soon, the silence became uncomfortable, but was broken only after a few minutes with another sharp reprimand from the woman. "Well from now on, you won't _be_ meeting in classrooms, so you better get used to always being on guard. If you're going to try and be shinobi, you might as well start acting like them, so wipe those childish expressions of your face and get ready!"

Hoshiko immediately straightened up, discarding the backpack on the floor, as well as her hoodie; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ayame doing the same. Much to their dismay however, their efforts were met with a smirking laugh. "I see 'get ready' doesn't mean much to you. I guess you think you're too good for me then, mm? Well try _this_ out – And by the way, lose me and I'll have your hides tanned and you stripped of your shinobi privileges for good. Catch me if you can." And with that, she leaped from her position at the front of the room into a crouch on the window sill before rocketing onto a tree and then farther still onto a rooftop.

"Shit!" the two girls exclaimed almost simultaneously, and they were both out the window in moments. Hoshiko was under no circumstances getting sent back to the Hayato, or getting stripped of her privileges, not after working this hard! To her left, she saw Ayame stumble a bit, and with an outstretched arm, Hoshiko stabilized the girl before sending her flying forward with an extra hand, next sending an extra burst of chakra to her own feet to make her leap grow longer. She would not disappoint her sensei for a second time!

Suddenly, the woman took a dive, leaping off of the building – directly into early morning market traffic. Ayame was about to follow her, when Hoshiko yelled out orders. "You stay on the roofs! Keep track of her from up here! I'll follow below!"

Another chakra propelled jump launched her into the midst of the crowd, and Hoshiko's agility was tested to the max, especially with all of the people carrying groceries. It was hard to keep up, but whenever she temporarily lost sight, she just had to shout for Ayame, who would point her in the right direction. The two met up again when their teacher made a jump into the trees near the gates, leading them half way around the city before the woman suddenly changed directions again, this time jumping onto an awning and proceeding to run – straight up the wall, which was just as tall as the gates. Hoshiko heard her comrade groan, but all she did was give an arm signal to spread about six feet apart. However, this wasn't the only source of their troubles, as suddenly the two were faced with a rain of shuriken, taking their concentration on running, pursuit of her, and maintenance of chakra concentration to the extreme. The pair barely managed to dodge all of them, Ayame having a chunk taken out of her hair and Hoshiko with a cut on her cheek. Before she reached the top, Hoshiko ran about ninety degrees around the building, figuring that the ninja was waiting for them at the top. Again, this didn't solve her problem – Upon making it to the top, she found that there was another figure on the roof top.

He wore light blue pants, standard nin-shoes, and a sleeveless darker blue hoodie. Underneath the hoodie he wore a skin-tight, olive green shirt, sleeveless on one side and with a ripped up short sleeve on the other; he had a long necklace with a metal cat of some sort on it, as well as leather bands around his wrists and two thick silver rings. In terms of physical appearances, he had fine, light magenta hair that was tousled from the winds at this elevation, pale skin, and hazel eyes. From behind him, she could see what looked to be a paw sticking out from a backpack. A few inches taller than the other woman, he was certainly an intimidating figure.

Hoshiko also found her assumption that the woman would be waiting to be correct as Ayame popped up and had to roll out of the way to dodge a kunai. With a feint, the brunette made it past the boy and found her place next to Ayame. Shit, this was exhausting! Before she could make another move though, the woman stopped spoke up. "Just for your information, he'll be making sure you don't pull anything funny – Oh, I hope you didn't think we were done!"

"Bitch," Ayame cursed under her breath, and they were off again, this time being tailed by the boy. It was another hour and a half before Hoshiko finally threw up; she'd never been cut out for long runs; jumping through the trees was fine, but this wore her out. Having such a big breakfast hadn't been such a good idea after all, she scolded herself, exhaustion setting in. In another fifteen minutes or so, they'd have been running for almost three hours. It was at four hours that Ayame finally lost her breakfast, and at four and a half, the woman stopped again.

"So do you give up?" she taunted, barely having even broken out in a sweat.

"Hell no!" they both swore, and they were off again.

At six hours, she stopped again, and the two girls were almost at the point of collapsing, Hoshiko having thrown up a total of three times; at this point, she was dry heaving. Ayame's breath felt like sandpaper in her throat, and she could almost feel tears of exhaustion beading in her eyes.

"How about now? Give up yet?" The woman had lost all semblance of a person in Hoshiko's eyes at this point, simply being a target, and a hated one at that.

"Fuck NO! How many times am I going to have to tell you?!" Hoshiko screamed, sweat burning the cut she'd gotten on her cheek hours before.

A flicker of movement caught her eye, and before she'd even had a chance to react, the boy who had been tailing them had suddenly grasped Ayame's arms, pinning them painfully behind her back. "You sure about that?" the woman asked again, and this time Hoshiko began to get angry. Ignoring her, she began to run towards Ayame, but in seconds, she found herself in the same fashion as her friend with arms twisted painfully behind her back. "I'll ask you one more time: do you give up?" she hissed in her ear.

Shit, shit, shit! What was she going to do!? Well, the only thing she could do of course: Keep trying. However, just as she started to spit out another bitter rejection, the boy made as if to wrench Ayame's arm out of it's socket. "YES! Yes! We give up!" she cried out suddenly, desperate.

The blue-haired girl looked shocked. "No! We do NOT give up, Panda!" she reprimanded sharply.

"Listen, we can't win. We're outmatched," Hoshiko sighed and twisted her head around, making her neck crack and grinding her teeth together. However, Ayame caught the message: Whenever Hoshiko was thinking, she had the habit of cracking her neck.

"Fine. We give up," the blue haired girl said, many nights of poker paying off with her realistic defeated expression.

"In that case, you-" the woman started to say before Hoshiko made her move.

Rolling both of her shoulders backward quickly put her captor just off guard enough to allow Hoshiko to slam both of her elbows back into her stomach. The black-haired woman stumbled back a few steps, just enough for Hoshiko to give a turn-about round house kick. However, she was too fast for her and did a substitution jutsu, which was lucky enough for her, seeing as the log immediately splintered as her foot made contact. Much to the woman's surprise, it _didn't _surprise Hoshiko, who continued her onslaught with an airborne kick. The jounin caught that as well, then blocked a punch,

"Ayame, combo number one!" Hoshiko shouted as she swung another punch. Ayame made her move, suddenly snapping her head around and chomping the boy on the shoulder, causing him to release her.

"Taijuu kage bunshin, shishi rendan!" Ayame yelled, her max of four shadow clones appearing. Immediately they jumped off in different directions, one to the woman's right, one to the left, one behind, and the last launching itself into the air. The jounin of course tried to break away, but she found that her grasp on Hoshiko's hands that she had caught when stopping the punches had suddenly turned into Hoshiko holding her.

"Shit!" It was the first strong reaction, or rather, reaction at all, that they'd gotten out of her. The clones that had been on the ground launched themselves into the air as well, executing Lion's Barrages on each side of her, the original beginning to run forward as well, a few seconds behind. Just as they were about to hit, Hoshiko did a substitution jutsu to avoid getting taking the kicks as well. At the last possible moment, with speed astounding all present, she whipped out her two swords, shouting, "Suzume no Kaze: Heika no Saidai Mamori!"** As she began to spin around, the blades in both hand started to rotate as well at incredible speed, dispersing the shadow clones. What she hadn't counted on, however, was the fact that Ayame had started later than she'd meant to: Being a few seconds behind, Ayame delivered a sliding kick to the woman as soon as her rotation had stopped; however, moments before the hit landed, the chakra in Ayame's foot evaporated, no longer having enough to sustain the move, and thus the jounin was able to simply flip back as the move didn't even take the feet out form under her.

The two girls were exhausted, and at this point Hoshiko was out of ideas. The boy was moving to the jounin's side, and Ayame was struggling to get up again. The brunette felt her knees cave beneath her, and she fell to the rooftop, knees bloody and scraped and no energy left to catch herself. It was over, and they were finished. They wouldn't even go back to the Academy, she'd said. They'd be stripped of their ninja titles, period. A shudder passed over her body, and she felt bile rising in her throat again. Six hours of running, followed by a fight left her weak; she couldn't even begin to imagine how Ayame was feeling, having used so much chakra at the last minute. So that was that – they'd failed.

"Well well now," Hoshiko dimly heard the woman say. Ugh, would she not just leave them alone? Hadn't she done enough? "I suppose I'll have to take back my earlier judgment." She paused. "You both pass."

It took almost a full fifteen seconds before Hoshiko's brain was finally able to process the statement. "What?" she croaked out hoarsely, her brain hazy.

She heard the woman laugh. "Did you think anyone honestly expects you to be able to successfully pursue and catch a jounin? That's ridiculous! That wasn't the point of this exercise. It was a test of your dedication. If you gave up, then you failed. If you had said that you would keep going even when he was holding your comrade, then you would have passed. I almost failed you because you said you gave up, but you showed incredible ingenuity as well. You are truly deserving of your title as genin."

Hoshiko lay silent for another moment. Why hadn't she considered that earlier? It was true though; there was no way that anyone could expect them to catch a jounin, so why hadn't she figured out that it wasn't what it appeared earlier? Suddenly, she felt someone lifting up her torso and turning her over. The movement made her dizzy for a moment before she recognize that something was pushing against her lips. Dumbly, she opened her mouth and was rewarded by a cool stream of water flowing into her parched mouth. Almost immediately, she started to choke, and the water stopped until she was through before offering more. Hoshiko clumsily rubbed a hand over her eyes, trying to clear some of the bleariness; her vision cleared, she found that it was the boy giving her the water. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ayame receiving much the same treatment from the woman.

"Where do you live?"

It took a moment for her to pinpoint the location of the voice, but she recognized that it came from the jounin after a moment. Hoshiko took the liberty to speak up, knowing that Ayame would never remember it. "The apartment complex east of the Academy and the Hokage Mansion; it's across the river a bit south of the Weapon's Shop. Flat 416." And with that said, Hoshiko promptly passed out.

--

She was conscious enough to know when whoever was carrying her started to walk up the stairs to their apartment; it always smelled like miso soup there.

"Shit! The door's locked! What're we gonna do?"

"Beats me. Maybe their Academy teacher has a copy. I think it was Hayato?" Hoshiko recognized the voices as the boy and the woman.

"Speak of the devil, looks mad as hell," she heard him mutter.

"Are you just now getting back?! Please don't tell me you were traini- Holy mother of… Is this your idea of a test?! They're _passed out!_" Hoshiko recognized Hayato's voice, gradually rising in volume.

"Well, you told me to push them," was the simple reply.

"I didn't mean to push them to the brink of death!"

The jounin spoke in a deadly quiet tone. "I'd like to remind you who their sensei is now. I'm in charge of them. And you know me quite well regardless! I was making my point; it's not like I push them this hard all the time. I'll thank you to remember who is teaching them." There was a moment of silence. "In any case, neither has a key on them. Do you have a copy?"

"I saw their backpacks in my classroom, so I brought them with me. It's probably in one of these pockets," he replied icily. Hoshiko heard someone rummaging around and undoing zippers; the noise she returned to darkness with was the opening of the door.

*Sorry for the extensive description. This chapter will probably be heavy with that, establishing the basic appearances of most characters. Pretty much all clothing described here is what you can imagine them in for the rest of the fic unless otherwise stated.

**A move I made up myself! Translates to Wind of the Sparrow: Greatest Protection of the Sword. Their teacher came up with it herself: With her two swords, she spins quickly, rotating her swords to deflect attacks; similar to the Hyuuga's Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Hoshiko slept until the next morning and woke up feeling like a cripple. Her back ached and her legs felt like lead, and upon sitting up, she felt like crying. Moans from below alerted her to the fact that Ayame was feeling similarly.

"Fuck," her blue-haired friend growled.

"Well we passed?" Hoshiko replied, wincing as she tried to be optimistic and bend her knees.

"Damn straight we did. I swear, if that bitch ever tries to pull anything like that again-"

"I'll help you kill her."

"Good to know."

There was a pause as they both tried to make their bodies work again. "I'm gross. We should probably take showers."

"Eh. Yeah. You hop in first, and I'll make breakfast, or try to anyways."

"Sounds good. Now please, please don't let me fall down the steps," Hoshiko muttered, easing herself into the descent. It was times like these when she really hated having the top bunk.

Inside the shower, she let it run hot enough to steam up the windows before jumping in, using more soap than she ever had to try and feel clean again and a generous amount of shampoo to massage her scalp. The high water pressure helped her to relax, and she was reluctant to leave it, but she had to leave some for Ayame.

"Oi, oi! Get in here, I've got the water hot!" she shouted, cracking the door and letting some steam escape. "I'll finish up breakfast, 'kay?" Ayame was inside like a speeding bullet, barely allowing Hoshiko to wrap herself up in a towel and grab her clothes before pushing her out the door to enjoy the hot water for herself.

Hoshiko took her time wringing out her hair and putting on some clean clothes before stealing Ayame's fuzzy slippers since her feet still hurt. In the kitchen, she popped a few ibuprofen alongside her calcium supplements and set about finishing breakfast. It wasn't until she went to get a Dr. Pepper that she noticed the note pinned to the fridge.

'_Hello, and good morning, I would guess. I hope you slept well and are feeling alright. If you're sore, try doubling up ibuprofen with some alieve; it's the best combo I've found. Anyway, we weren't properly introduced yesterday, and now that I'm officially your teacher, I thought it would be appropriate to get acquainted. Why don't you stop by and meet me and your team mate for dinner at Ichiraku? I hear the blue-haired girl likes ramen. Regards, Hotaru.'_

Hoshiko scanned over it again before setting it by Ayame's plate; the test yesterday had been beyond unbelievable, but it could be that she wasn't always like that. The note seemed nice enough, least ways, and she thought she'd heard her say something like that yesterday after she'd passed out, although she might have just imagined it. Popping an alieve like she'd recommended, she puzzled over her new sensei. Anyway, that had been the first time she'd actually introduced herself – Hotaru. It was a pretty name, meant something like firefly, if she remembered correctly.

The waffle iron shrieked, and Hoshiko took out the second waffle before setting out the butter and syrup. Very American, but she couldn't eat Asian food all the time. Ayame came out a moment later, toweling off her hair. "Eh? What's this?" Ayame said, picking up the note and scanning it.

"Lunch invitation from sensei. Name's Hotaru, apparently. Here, take these," Hoshiko said, handing her some pills and a glass of milk.

Ayame swallowed them and sat down to eat. "Hm. Certainly doesn't seem like the sort of thing someone who'd tried to kill us yesterday would write."

"She might just have been testing our limits. Maybe she's not all bad," Hoshiko offered up.

"Hmph. Anyone who tries to kill me doesn't earn brownie points just by leaving a nice note." There was a moment of silence before Ayame suddenly jumped up and started jumping around. "OH EHM ZEE! RAMEN RAMEN RAMEN! MAN, I LOVE THIS WOMAN!"

Hoshiko laughed and rolled her eyes; damn, that girl bounced back fast. The rest of the morning and afternoon passed quickly. Ayame stripped the sheets and took them down to the laundry on the bottom floor, and Hoshiko cleaned the kitchen. Mid-morning they both went to the Hot Springs to loosen up their muscles a bit more, and when they came back, they hung them up to dry, creating a clothes line from the doorknob of the closet to a tree branch outside. Hoshiko thought it was a rather ingenious idea, and Ayame rolled her eyes at her for getting so excited about laundry. For the rest of the time until they were due at Ichiraku, they spent their afternoon quietly, enjoying what would probably be one of the last warm spells until April. Hoshiko drew, and Ayame contented herself with writing yaoi fluff.

At 6:30, the two of them finally set off, Ayame tugging Hoshiko along by the wrist with thoughts of ramen. Upon arriving, they immediately recognized the woman from yesterday, and to Hoshiko's surprise, the boy as well standing outside of the ramen stand.

"Konnichiwa," the woman greeted them with a smile, and the boy gave a small wave.

"Hey," Hoshiko replied, not exactly sure on what grounds she stood with them.

"So where's your team mate?" the woman asked.

"Oh, she's right–" Hoshiko turned around to point at nothing. "Aw, crap."

Suddenly, a flying shape burst out of a nearby tree. "I AM BATMAN!!"

The boy was quick to react, channeling chakra into his feet and delivering a slamming kick to the shape.

"OH MY GOD! AYAME!" Hoshiko shouted, staring after her flying form as she broke through several fences. In a rage, she turned towards they boy. "Why you–!" The two of them had drawn kunai and were going at it in seconds.

However, the fight was not long lived as their teacher came between them in a moment, catching both of their punches. "You all are going to stop fighting, sit down, be friendly, and _like it!_" she growled, glaring at them.

"Hai, sensei," the three of them said, Ayame and Hoshiko slightly frightened, the other boy seemingly used to it.

Once they sat down, Ayame started giggling again, and Hoshiko followed her gaze to bite marks on the boy's hand. A server came shortly and handed them menus, and they sat for a few moments in what seemed like an awkward silence to Hoshiko, but perhaps not to the rest. After ordering, the black haired woman spoke up again. "Well, I hope you're feeling alright. It's nice to actually meet you, now that we're all settled down. I'm Suzushima Hotaru, and I'll be your sensei now on."

"I'm Nishizawa Yuuta. Nice to meet you," the magenta-haired boy added in.

"Nice to meet both of you. Tsukino Hoshiko, and this is-"

"Kurogawa Ayame. Anyway, when do we get our first mission?" she piped up, having gotten bored with the niceties.

Much to Hoshiko's surprise, the woman laughed. "Straight to business, I see. Anyway, before you get too excited, the missions that we'll be doing at first will all be simple ones, like catching cats and helping harvesters." Hoshiko was quickly coming to like her teacher more, despite the events of yesterday; maybe being on this team would be fun after all.

"Aww man!" Ayame settled into a pout, although Hoshiko knew it wouldn't last long with their ramen coming.

"Easy there. We do it for a reason! Someone has to do it, first of all," she started, putting her elbows on the counter as she interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on them. "Also, do-nothing jobs bring in a good chunk of Konoha's revenue. Mainly, though, you guys aren't ready; I'll give you that you're more advanced than catching cats, but easy missions give you time to train. Most of the harder missions won't start coming until around the time you take the Chuunin exams," Hotaru explained with a shrug. Hoshiko nodded. With it laid out like that, the logic was hard to deny. "Enough about that for now though. Introductions!" she laughed, leaning back. "So tell me about yourselves. Strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, fears, dreams... You know, that sort of thing."

The boy started. "Well, like I said, I'm Yuuta. I like running, reading... and cooking, I suppose. I don't particularly like dogs or chicken of any sort in food. My strengths are speed and ninjutsu. I mostly use my clan's jutsu, so I summon cats. Katsu is my trump summon," he said, scooting back to reveal a small stuffed tiger; from the looks of it, it had been what Hoshiko had seen yesterday in his backpack.

Hoshiko raised an eyebrow but refrained from judging; after all, there were far more innocent looking things than a stuffed tiger... Well, actually maybe not, but in any case, she was sure he had his reasoning. After shooting a death glare at Ayame to stop her from laughing, she went back to listening to him.

"...I'm not very good at genjutsu, and I'm afraid of heights. I want to become a ANBU captain when I'm older," he finished, shrugging before turning to look at Ayame.

She blinked for a second before realizing they were waiting for her to talk. "Oh! Um, right. I'm... uh... Well, I'm good at eating ramen! Really good at that. And... I've got a good amount of stamina, and I'm pretty good at taijutsu too. I've got abysmal chakra control though... Err... I like... yao-" Another glare from Hoshiko cut her off. "I mean ramen and pop tarts. I like to write too, and I especially love pointies and shinies! I'm scared of needles though. My dream is to go roof surfing in a hospital bed with the Hokage," she finished, giving a usual wicked grin.

When Hotaru didn't speak up, Hoshiko figured it was her turn, and she started right in. "I'm good at ninjutsu and chakra control; my taijutsu can be a bit sloppy sometimes though, and I have very little stamina. I like Diet Dr. Pepper, drawing, onigiri, manga, and pandas, and I don't like fish, Pepsi, or romance novels. I'm arachnophobic, and when I grow up I want to have my own genin squad," she finished with a smile.

Hotaru smiled at Hoshiko's dream before starting in on her own introduction. "My talents are pretty evenly distributed, but I'm best at sword work. I specialize at dual-wielding chokutos, but I'm also good with genjutsu, although I don't use them often. I like teriyaki steak, haiku, the hot springs, and the smell of clean sheets; I don't like rats, egg rolls, cold water, or noisy people. I'm fairly new to teaching, but I've had Yuuta for a few months now; before that, I was co-captain of the ANBU, and before that I was the Konoha ambassador to Yukigakure," she explained with a shrug.

Hoshiko's eyes widened for a moment; that was certainly an impressive resume! Absolutely unbelievable, really. She was distracted from her thoughts as the ramen arrive, however; Ayame had already downed three by the time she'd finished one. The rest of the meal passed quickly in friendly company, and Hoshiko decided that she definitely liked both Yuuta and Hotaru. They'd agreed to meet the day after next to allow Hoshiko and Ayame some time to relax their muscles from the beating they'd gotten yesterday. Their official training zone was number fourteen, which was easy to remember, because it was only one number more than Hoshiko's birthday.

Back at the apartment as the girls got ready for bed, they laughed and chatted a bit before settling back in their covers. "Man, that was good," Ayame commented, a bit sleepily.

"Yeah, I know! They were both actually really nice."

"Eh? I was talking about the ramen..."

Hoshiko snorted. "Pshh, do you even know their names?"

"Um... Well there was Bokaru or something, and then Calvin and Hobbs."

Hoshiko started to giggle. "You mean Ichigo and Kon?" The both of them broke out laughing for a long minute before finally settling down again. "Anyway, sensei's name is Hotaru, and it was Yuuta and Katsu. I swear, if you forget that and embarrass me, I'll never forgive you!" she teased. The two laughed some more before finally falling asleep.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Two days later, the girls set out for Training Zone 36, each wearing their forehead protectors proudly; Hoshiko sported hers like Sakura as a headband, and Ayame wore hers over her forehead, although it was always slipping in front of her left eye which was already usually covered by bangs. Both of them were eager, although for different reasons: Hoshiko was ready to start testing her skill level, and Ayame wanted to see if the bite mark she'd given Yuuta was still there. When they arrived, they found that it was much different than 22 where they'd trained with Hayato. It had more trees and training dummies scattered about; to the left was the beginning of thicker forest, and on the far end of the field was shack as well as a pond with a stream leading off into the woods.

Suddenly, Hoshiko felt her body slam to the ground by a moving blur of a blue force also known as Ayame. Just as she was opening her mouth to yell at her, she spotted the shuriken stuck in the ground where she had been moments ago. Immediately, she was up on her feet and the two were back to back, each with a kunai pulled out. After blocking several more projectiles, Hoshiko had figured out the general locations where they were coming from. "One, three and four o'clock. Others on your side?" she murmured to Ayame, execution of the blocks nearly flawless.

"Seven, ten, and eleven. Shadow clone weapons?" Ayame said back, reflexes working like mad.

"Sounds good. Create them and then transform them when it looks like they get hit." Ayame created three clones and Hoshiko two at the soonest break they got and continued with the plan from there: Just when it looked like the clone would burst into smoke from getting hit, they would transform the clone into a kunai or a shuriken, creating the same cloud of smoke that enabled them to grab the weapon inconspicuously. By the time all six of their clones had disappeared, the two of them were panting from the continuous assault.

"Alright, you ready?" Ayame asked.

"Golden any time."

"Great. You throw then, on three."

"Gotcha!" Hoshiko said, dropping one hand behind her back to grab the kunai that Ayame handed her.

"One-" Hoshiko created a shadow clone which began to block the weapons. "Two-" Ayame did the same and swiftly turned around to grab Hoshiko's waist. "THREE!" Spinning around, Ayame launched Hoshiko into the air towards six o'clock.

Hoshiko only took a fraction of a second to orient herself before beginning to hurl the various kunai at their intended targets, each on mark, before doing a somersault to launch herself off of another tree towards the last location. Hoshiko shot through the foliage where she found a clone of Hotaru ready with a weapon. "Aww, shit!" she cursed. _Please, please let this be easier than her last test,_ she thought as she made the first move.

Hoshiko's clone had already disappeared, leaving Ayame and her clone on the ground; unfortunately, they couldn't tell if the plan was working or not, seeing as they saw several indistinct puffs of smoke. That could either be the weapons turning back into human form, the clones getting killed, or there was always the possibility that the enemy was composed of clones to begin with. The clash of metal on metal spurred Ayame into action, and she sprung into the trees to see Hotaru facing off with one of Hoshiko's clones who apparently hadn't gotten her on contact. Unfortunately, at that moment, one of her clones apparently was defeated and she found that her clone had _also_ been facing of against Hotaru. Damn shadow clones...

The fights went on for about five more minutes before all of the Hotaru shadow clones suddenly disappeared, and Hoshiko and Ayame's clones stood around warily, panting a bit. All of a sudden, a slow clap came from above them and to their right. "Well, that wasn't horrible; you at least survived. Compared to Yuuta though, that was pathetic; he lasted another two and a half minutes." Looking up, they saw the real Hotaru shrug and cross her arms as she sat on a tree branch; on the other side of the trunk was Yuuta, cleaning his weapons in a nonchalant manner.

Hoshiko's expression turned sour in seconds, and she let her shadow clones disappear, which didn't help her mood at all as she saw the beating that her other selves had received.

Ayame was in a much worse mood. "Well fuck you!" she spat, and in seconds, she'd whipped out a shuriken and hurled it with deadly precision at the spot where Hotaru's hand was. Hotaru, of course, dodged it without even appearing to move.

Ayame's anger took the edge off of Hoshiko's and enabled her to think a bit more clearly. "Fine. Teach us how to do better then. That is what you're here to do, isn't it?" she replied, raising her eyebrows with a testy tone in her voice.

Hotaru leaned her torso over and much to their surprise fell off the branch; it was short-lived however as she turned her body into a ball and proceeded to dodge all of the branches in her path without even looking before landing on both feet, perfectly upright. Ayame snorted and flipped her hair out of her face, which didn't help much since her headband was mostly covering one eye. Yuuta followed suit with a few flips down and stood standing beside her; admittedly, his imposing appearance was somewhat diminished by the fact that he was holding a stuffed tiger, but the effect was still the same: Hotaru and Yuuta both thought that they were useless.

Hoshiko felt her anger rising again. They still thought they weren't any good even after that combo? The shadow weapons? Oh, screw them! She'd show them all and prove herself to be better than any of them! And Hotaru had pretended to act so nice too... Whatever! She and Ayame would train until their weapons were worn away from so much use. She wouldn't give up, ever! A sarcastic voice in her head interrupted her thoughts by suggesting she shout 'dattebayo' at the top of her lungs, but she ignored it. She would be as awesome as Naruto without the obnoxious slogan. Ayame seemed riled up as well, but Hoshiko could tell she was calming down.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes as the two pairs stood off, Hoshiko and Ayame glaring at the nonchalant other pair. Finally, Hotaru spoke. "Well, this first training assignment should at least help a little bit. Come on, then," she said before suddenly launching herself into a tree. Hoshiko groaned and was tempted to just sit down and give them all the bird – she really wasn't up to another chase – but remembering the promise she'd made to herself moments earlier, she jumped into the trees to try and catch up, Ayame following her lead.

Surprisingly, their sensei made it possible for them to keep up with only working up a slight sweat, and the quartet found themselves whizzing through the greenery, jumping over fences to different training zones. Hoshiko occasionally saw other ninjas training for a fleeting second before disappearing out of sight, and she realized what a vast number of the zones there must be. She considered asking Hotaru for a moment, but she was still angry with her, so she instead opted for Yuuta. Speeding up, she was soon in step with him.

"Hey, do you know how many training zones there are?" she asked, trying to be friendly.

"Uh... About eighty or so. How come?" he asked, surprisingly cordial. Maybe Hotaru had just set him up to act like a jerk.

"Just wondering. I haven't ever really been outside of Konoha or Rigakure, so I was just curious."

"Oh. Well, they surround Konoha with about a six mile radius. The higher the number, the more dangerous and difficult. Most of them are to the south and west; there are some beyond Hokage Mountain, and to the east there are some ruins which pushes the training zones out farther," he explained.

"Cool. Thanks," she smiled before falling back again. After another fifteen minutes, the trees had begun to thin out significantly, revealing open fields and the intersection of a few dirt roads; Hotaru jumped down and waited for her students to catch up. Hoshiko landed in a crouch before standing up straight; having exercised a bit, she felt less angry, although still a bit pissed.

"Alright, kiddies! Your first training mission is just around the corner," she said as she began to walk, taking the path curving right into another grove of trees, these much less thick. "This is the dojo; if you ever need to practice taijutsu outside of our training, this is the place to go. There are always lots of experienced teachers around and people to practice with. Plus, if you ever need to just practice a move against someone, they've created reinforced shadow clones that withstand attacks better. That specific technique was actually created by a girl in the Water Country," she explained as she walked. The building soon came into view: It was magnificent, in its own simplistic way; it was a traditional Japanese style of architecture with sliding doors and plain wooden structural elements. The only real elaborate piece was a statue of a tengu at the foot of the stairs leading up to the entrance. "So, your mission here is to learn a new taijutsu move of your choice." All of them nodded in consent; it seemed fair enough. "Alright then, I'll leave you to it. Deadline is noon tomorrow." Without another word, she jumped off into the trees before any of them could voice a single question.

"Well shit," Ayame said, scratching her head. "Tomorrow? Guess I'd better get started then," she commented before strolling in and leaving Hoshiko staring after her.

The brunette blinked and was shocked for a moment. That had gone over surprisingly well for Ayame; she seemed extraordinarily confident. Admittedly, Ayame was pretty good at taijutsu, but mastering a move in twenty-four hours was a steep order. Well, that was Ayame. Hoshiko, however, was nervous. She wasn't as good at taijutsu; she was agile and could channel chakra to increase the force, but she was always leaving herself wide open. With a sigh, Hoshiko turned to Yuuta again. "Is Hotaru-sensei always like this?" she asked, hoping he wouldn't pass her off as a whiner.

"No, not really actually. She was super tough on me at the beginning too, but she's a really nice person when it comes down to it. She just wants to see what your limits are right now; it'll get better, I promise," he said, giving her a warm smile. "Plus, she wants to motivate you; that's where I'm supposed to help," Yuuta added with a crooked smile. "I'm not gonna go easy on you!" he half-teased, making Hoshiko laugh.

"Alright then! You're on!" she responded as the two of them raced up the steps to the dojo.


End file.
